Good Hands Award

On January 18 Jonathan Holladay awarded the Allstate Good Hands Award to six athletes. This award is given to athletes who showed outstanding perfromances in the sports this week. This week’s winners were: Michael Bridges, Sidney Cooper, Shania Reed, Alex Villa, and Austin Stephens. Congratulations to the student athletes.

Walker Takes Down Curry

Walker takes down Curry

          by          Johnathan BentleyDaily  Mountain Eagle

Curry stayed within striking distance for  three quarters Friday night.
Once the fourth quarter started, Walker  found its groove and ended Curry’s chances.
Walker’s offense got going  over the final eight minutes, putting 24 points on the scoreboard in a 64-41  victory over the Yellow Jackets at Songer Gym.
“That was kind of the  plan,” Walker coach Scotty Ware said. “We wanted to keep putting pressure on  them and get to them in the fourth quarter.”
Curry cut Walker’s 14-point  halftime lead in half at 38-31 late in the third quarter after an Alex Odom  3-pointer.
Walker (7-12 overall, 4-2 in 5A, Area 11) took control of the  game early in the fourth, forcing turnovers and getting easy transition baskets.  The Vikings were led by Dashuan Kendrick, Drekas Key and Brandon Thursby in the  final period. The trio combined for 14 points in the quarter.
“We started  playing the way we are supposed to,” Ware added. “We battled for every loose  ball.  We were diving all over the court. We got a little dirty  tonight.”
Walker jumped out to a 9-3 lead in the opening quarter, but  Curry cut the gap to 14-12 going into the second quarter.
The Vikings  closed the first half with an 11-1 run. Thursby knocked down a 3-pointer to  start the spurt with 3:41 left in the half. Ryan Dill converted a steal into a  layup and added a free throw while a Shane Donaldson putback gave Walker a 30-16  halftime lead.
The Vikings led by as many as 13 points in the third  quarter after a Jonathan McCants 3-pointer, but Curry got a pair of putbacks  from Wesley Key and a 3-pointer by Alex Odom to cut the lead to 38-31 with 35  seconds left in the third quarter. Walker led 40-31 going into the fourth  quarter.
For the Vikings, Donaldson had 11 points and 12 rebounds, Ryan  Dill added 11 points and six steals, Austin Stephens had 10 points, McCants had  eight and  Thursby put in seven, Key and Kendrick each had six.
For  Curry, Odom and Spencer Fikes each had 12 points, Key added six and both Bradley  Loggins and Jacob O’Rear put in four.
Ware has been pleased with Walker’s  effort in its last two home games — area wins over Hayden and  Curry.
“Since this coaching staff has been together, we’ve been hard to  beat at home. Over the last two years we’ve kind of lost that. It’s been tougher  for us to defend our home court. We talked about taking that back. I thought we  did that against Hayden and tonight. We were out there taking charges and  attacking rebounds.
“We’ve got a few more home games. We’ll see if we can  finish strong at home.”
Walker will hit the road for its next two games.  The Vikings play a makeup game at Lawrence County on Tuesday and play at Fayette  County on Friday.
Curry opens play in the Walker County Tournament at  Parrish on Monday. The Yellow Jackets take on Cordova at 4:30 p.m.

VARSITY GIRLS
Walker 52, Curry 28
Walker’s Sidney Cooper  and Jazmine Lake combined for 27 points as the Walker Lady Vikings earned a  52-28 home win over Curry Friday night.
The game was close through the  first quarter, but Walker held Curry to just six points in the second quarter as  the Lady Vikings pulled away for a 28-15 halftime lead.
Walker pushed its  lead to 37-18 going into the fourth quarter.
Cooper paced the Lady  Vikings with 14 points, Lake had 13, Chloe Sudberry added nine, Shania Reed had  eight and Miranda Bruce put in five.
For Curry, Mary Beth Scott led the  way with nine points while Taylor Black added six and both Jessica Woodley and  Makenzie Hicks had five.

JV BOYS
Walker 37, Curry  27
Walker took a slim three-point lead into the final quarter, but pulled  away from there, beating Curry 37-27.
The teams were tied 9-9 after the  first quarter and Walker took a 17-16 lead into the half. The Vikings led 25-22  after three quarters and outscored Curry 12-5 in the final period to get the  10-point win.
For Walker, Denzell Daley and Trevon Chatman led a balanced  attack with eight points each.
Curry’s Hargrove had 13 points while  Santos added 11.

NINTH-GRADE BOYS
Walker 58, Curry  13
John Michael Reed had 27 points and five steals to lead the Walker  ninth-grade boys team to a 58-13 win over Curry.
The Vikings (10-4)  blanked Curry in the first quarter and led 16-0 going into the second quarter.  Walker opened up a 34-3 halftime lead and took a 37-6 advantage into the fourth  quarter.
For Walker, Isreal Johnson had nine points and seven rebounds  while Chris Evans, Jarrod Ollie and Marlon Oliver each had seven  points.
Walker’s ninth-grade boys host Corner on Monday with the JV girls  playing at 6 p.m. and the ninth-grade boys following at 7:15 p.m.

Read more:  Daily Mountain Eagle – Walker takes down Curry

Big Wins for Indoor Track

January 7, 2012 was a good day for the Walker Indoor Track Team.  The team placed 9^th out of 27 teams with only 5 guys. The 4 by 800 meter relay started the Vikings off by taking 2^nd place to Mountain Brook and breaking the track record. The time put them in first place for the 5A rankings by almost 10 seconds. Austin Elliot had a good day in his events by placing 65^th out of 159 in the 60 meter dash and 18th out of 76 in the long jump, putting him in 5^th place for the 5A rankings. Andrew Harris and Hunter Hawkins did well in the 800 scoring a combined total of 11 points with Andrew winning the race and setting the new track record and Hunter placing 8^th. That puts Andrew at number one and Hunter at number four in the 5A rankings. Jeb Cowen placed 12^th and had a new personal best of 52.46 putting him at second place in the 5A. Bradford Lepik did well in the mile coming in 12^th and also had a new personal record; Bradford is also ranked well in the 5A state seeded at 4^th place. To end a great day, the 4 by 400 relay team composed of Harris, Hawkins, Cowen, and Lepik placed 2^nd to Hoover High School. This will put them in first place by over 10 seconds in 5A. Congrats to the Walker Indoor Track Team and Good Luck in your future meets.

By Andrew Harris