Tuesday Laurel Allen, left, grabs the ball from Brooke Campbell as her teammate Jordan Neuharth defends the goal during the Walker Valley High School Girls’ basketball game against Bradley Central High School at Walker Valley High School.CHARLESTON, Tenn. – Walker Valley coach Jan Spangler doesn’t want her Lady Mustangs to be known as solely a second-half team, but as long as they keep stringing together performances like Tuesday’s, she’ll learn to accept it.
Jordan Neuharth scored 26 points, and she and sister Taylor combined for 17 of Walker Valley’s 19 third-quarter points in a 52-49 District 5-AAA home victory over county rival and 10th-ranked Bradley Central at “The Stable.”
The fifth-ranked Lady Mustangs (14-1, 6-0) connected on 7 of 11 shots in the third quarter and 11 of 17 in the half, after going 5-for-16 in the first 16 minutes. After shooting 1-for-9 from 3-point range in the first half, Walker Valley started to penetrate in the second half and attempted only three 3s, hitting one.
“We have to find a way to play hard in the first half,” Spangler said. “We want to set the tone, but tonight they were beating us to loose balls and outrebounding us from the beginning — basically just outplaying us.
“I thought the second half was different. We came out ready to play and started making hustle plays, which was the difference.”