Photo by Matt Fields-Johnson
Dec, 16, 2010 Walker Valley’s Kayla Sewell fight for possession of the ball with GPS’s Jeneh Perry and lands on Chadarryl Clay during the second half of the girls basketball game Thursday night at Walker Valley High School. GPS won 49-39.CLEVELAND, Tenn. – The Stable, Walker Valley’s aptly named gymnasium that’s the home of the Mustangs, has been more like a graveyard when girls’ high school basketball teams from Chattanooga pay a visit. But GPS got out alive Thursday.
Whether it was what the Bruisers did defensively or what Walker Valley didn’t do offensively, GPS held the Lady Mustangs to a season-low point total on the way to a 49-39 victory.
Walker Valley was 7-0 coming in and had scored at least 53 points in each game. The Bruisers improved to 5-0 with their big early-season win.
“Now we’ve got a little bit better idea of what we can play like,” GPS coach Susan Crownover said. “We beat a good team on their floor. We had some rough spots, but we worked through them.
“Defensively is where we won the game. We gave them a lot of different looks.”
The Bruisers normally like to pick up on defense in the backcourt, and they did some of that Thursday. But with post player Jeneh Perry called for two fouls early, plans changed. Ultimately they settled on retreating into a man-to-man.
“In our half-court man we did a good job on help-side,” Crownover said. “Our rebounding was better tonight than it’s been all year.”
Walker Valley first-year coach Jan Spangler couldn’t have known that, but she knew she was watching her team going up against a physical opponent.
“It’s early, but they’re a really good team,” Spangler said. “They play hard and rebound hard.
“When they’re getting second and third chances, they’re hard to stop.”
The Lady Mustangs’ normally productive perimeter game was limited to five 3-point goals. One of those was by post player Kayla Sewell, who stepped out to the top of the key late in the first quarter and dropped in three of her team-high 13 points.
“We didn’t look like we were getting our feet set,” Spangler said. “We took a lot of quick shots. We’ve got to understand the difference between a good shot and a great shot.”
The Bruisers never trailed after taking a 20-18 lead 2:38 before halftime when Simone Busby scored inside, although the Lady Mustangs fought back from eight down early in the second half to tie it again at 26. From there GPS went on a 9-0 run and led by at least four points the rest of the way.
Chadarryl Clay topped the Bruisers with 17 points. Busby added 14 and MaryAnna Caldwell chipped in with 10.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653.