Walton Earns State Tournament Berth

The Walton Raiders’ 47-40 win over Wheeler in the Region 5-AAAAA tournament Tuesday was the culmination of a four-year project that began when head coach Karen Duncan took the reins of the girls basketball team in 2007.

“I’ve been here four years and these seniors were freshmen that started with me, and that’s been a goal of ours since they started as freshmen is getting through this game,” Duncan said. “Now, our other goal is winning region, so we’re not done. But getting through this game is unbelievable. It’s something I can’t describe.”

The win gives Duncan and senior starters Sarah Durdaller and Rachael Gibson their first ever state-tournament appearance, and it was largely because of Durdaller and Gibson that they accomplished that goal.

Gibson led all scorers with 13 points and dished out six assists, while Durdaller added 10 points, 15 rebounds and six assists. Durdaller’s rebound total included the 1,000th of her career. She already surpassed 1,000 career points earlier this season.

“That’s a huge accomplishment for her,” Duncan said.

Walton built a comfortable lead through the first three quarters and led 42-25 with 3:44 left in the game. Wheeler then put together a 10-0 run to trim the lead to seven points, but the Wildcats never got any closer than that.

“That’s how we start. We start slow, and then they finally find an urgency when they’re down by 10 points,” said Wheeler head coach Joel Howell. “They finally say, ‘Uh oh, we need to play.’ I know my team is very talented, but to see them start out slow and dig that hole and try to climb out of that hole it frustrates me. But it also makes me proud that they didn’t quit and actually got it to what the score was at the end of the game.”

Aysia Grimsley had 11 points to pace Wheeler offensively. Dee Carter added 10 points and Tashayla Steede finished with nine.

Duncan credited her defense for creating the low scoring output for Wheeler.

“When we decide to play defense we’re very good. When we decide not to, we’re not very good,” Duncan said. “We decided to play tonight, so we sat down and defended their two best players. (Grimsley) and (Steede) are great players. We had to contain them and we did.”

Walton advances to the region tournament semifinals where they will take on Marietta at 4 p.m. Friday. A win in that game would assure the Raiders of a home game in the first round of the state tournament.

Wheeler finishes its season with a 10-14 record.