Cleveland’s Jake Gibson guards Austin Harwood of Walker Valley Friday night at Walker Valley High School.CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Cleveland basketball coach Jason McCowan said after Friday night’s win over Walker Valley that he spent the second half trying to “find four guys to surround one” – which interestingly enough, is the number that his senior guard C.J. Bryant wears.
No. 1 was pretty special again.
Bryant scored 26 of his team’s 31 points in the second half, and the Blue Raiders were able to stay among the top teams in District 5-AAA with a 62-61 road victory over the Mustangs.
Bryant finished with a game-high 35 points, following up a 33-point outburst against Ooltewah on Tuesday. In addition, he added five steals and four assists as the Raiders improved to 15-8 overall and 9-2 in the district.
Walker Valley (14-10, 4-7) held a 52-45 lead going into the fourth quarter, and the margin remained seven points when a Lukas Korn layup made it 58-51 with 3:35 remaining, but Cleveland outscored the hosts 10-4 the rest of the way, with Bryant scoring eight of the 10 points.