Ra'chel Walton's 17 leads Cleveland Heights over Maple Heights 52-44

Eh, what a mess.

Looking at Cleveland Heights enforcer Supriya Frierson’s reddened face, one might even call Tuesday night’s game against Maple Heights a bloody mess. No, the teams weren’t about to come to blows or anything. Frierson simply got pinched in the rough-and-tumble action.

But thankfully for Frierson, an even-keeled Ra’chel Walton had her back.

Amidst the streams of turnovers, missed passes and clumsy play, starting senior guard Walton held her nerve late with a pair of crucial 3-pointers, along with some help from center-forward Jasmine Harper, to lead the Tigers to a 52-44 victory over their host the Mustangs in a Lake Erie League contest.

Cleveland Heights improved to 6-7 overall and 3-3 in LEL play, while Maple Heights fell to 5-6 for the season and 3-1 in the league. Cleveland Heights has won five of its last six games.

Walton felt it was just a matter of belief in herself and the team in the clutch.

"I just stayed confident, being humble and not giving up, not hanging my head," said Walton, who led the Tigers with 17 points. "A lot of times when we get down, we tend to hang our heads. So we just kept our heads up and played with intensity and just stuck up."

Cleveland Heights coach Kim Hansen gave a lot of credit to her senior’s leadership in a tough battle between rivals and her team’s ability to focus.

"I think Walton’s two threes gave us some breathing room. And besides that, just the team gutting it out," Hansen said. "We had a lot of easy shots throughout this game, and they weren’t falling for us. When you don’t get rewarded with easy shots, that’s a downer. But I thought we just kept fighting, and when Ra’chel hit those two threes, that gave us the room we needed to close the game out."

In the fourth quarter, after Maple Heights’ Dominique Smith scored twice with a bucket in traffic and a layup to give the Mustangs’ a 32-31 lead at 5:49, Walton had an eight-point spurt to help give Cleveland Heights a five-point lead.

Walton nailed a 3-pointer to put the Tigers up, 34-32. After Maple Heights’ RoChe’ Wimberly’s layup tied the score, 34-34, Walton’s layup and 3-pointer gave the Tigers a 39-34 lead at 4:35.

"At first, my shot was a little off. Then I just focused, and I knew we had to do something to win so I just stuck it out and came through," Walton said of her two threes.

The Mustangs responded with a 4-0 run as Eboni Adams, who had a game-high 20 points, sank a pair of free throws, and Smith put in a layup to cut the Tigers' lead to 39-38 at 3:50, but that was as close as they would come.

Harper, who struggled to 13 points after a 25-point performance against Normandy on Thursday night, more than made up for the tough evening. She had a layup, bank shot, steal, two free throws and a three-pointer as part of a personal 9-4 run to wrap up the game at 48-42 with 1:35 left.

Walton calmly sank all four of her free throws in the final minute for the final margin.

Maple Heights coach Ricky Watters felt his own team bungled the game but credited Cleveland Heights’ game plan.

"I think we kind of beat ourselves. We had some turnovers. Our guards kind of rushed a couple of things they shouldn’t have rushed. ..." Watters said. "That’s a decent team (Cleveland Heights). They had a good game plan to front our post. The strength of our team is our post. We’ve got good guards, too, but we’ve got to put the ball in the post and (Hansen) knew that. She had a good plan coming in."

The game got off to an inauspicious start with a series of airballs and turnovers in a quarter that finished with the Mustangs ahead, 10-9. Walton salvaged the Tigers’ efforts with a traditional 3-pointer as she was fouled on a made layup to finish the quarter’s scoring.

Bre Laster’s bucket at 4:45 of the second quarter gave the Tigers their first lead of the game at 13-12, and that began an 8-3 run to give Cleveland Heights a 21-15 halftime lead.

Maple Heights’ offense perked up in the third quarter as the Mustangs went on a 9-2 run to take a 24-23 lead on Wimberly’s layup at 3:42.

The teams each exchanged the lead twice through the end of the third and into the fourth quarter until Walton’s decisive buckets turned the game in Cleveland Heights’ favor.

Cleveland Heights travels to St. Vincent-St. Mary on Thursday for a 7:30 p.m. start.

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS 52

MAPLE HEIGHTS 44

CHHS   9 12 6  25   52

MHHS   10 5 13 16  44

Cleveland Heights: Walton 17 points, Harper 13 points, Frierson 10 points, Davis 4 points, Lee 4 points, Laster 2 points, Hicks 2 points.

Maple Heights: Adams 20 points, Smith 15 points, Thomas 5 points, Wimberly 4 points.