Lady Eagle Lakyn Lockhart puts up a corner 3 against Walker Valley on Thursday night. Lockhart made 4 threes in the 62-58 win vs Lady Mustangs in district tournament play.(Photo:GaryBolden/RheaCountyMagazine).

Evensville, TN -- Rhea County Lady Eagles Basketball earned a spot in the championship game vs Cleveland on 2/19/23, with a 7:30 pm tip. Rhea County came into the game as the underdog. Walker Valley had won the previous regular season games, 57-42 and 52-35.

Game got off to a slow start with the score sitting at 2-2 with just under 4 minutes left(3:38) in the first quarter before Walker Valley hit a 3 for the 5-2 lead. The Lady Eagles responded with Hattie Johnson lay-in off a Jenna Burchard assist to cut lead to 5-4. It was pretty much a tie to 2-point lead for Walker the rest of the quarter until Maliyah Woods hit a buzzer 3-point basket for 14-11 Lady Mustang first quarter lead.

Lakyn Lockhart tied the game 14-14 with a 3-pointer with 5:41 on the second quarter clock. Allie Shaver gave the Eagles the 16-14 lead at the 5 minute mark. Madison Bischof put the Lady Mustangs up 17-16 a few seconds later. With 3 minutes remaining, Cammie Ruehling came up with a steal and flew down the court for the go-ahead basket(20-19). Lockhart moved the Lady Eagles to a 23-19 lead at the 2:06 mark and that was the halftime score.

Elissa Earls put Walker back on top 24-23 at 7:33 of the 3rd quarter, and Cammie Ruehling helped Rhea grab the lead back( 27-26) with a 3-point basket with 4:30 left on 3rd quarter clock. Lockhart on a nice assist from Hattie Johnson found herself all alone for the basket at 2:212 mark to take the 29-28 lead and then scored another basket to retake the lead 31-30 45 seconds later, and completed the trifecta with an elbow 3 for the 34-31 lead with 45 seconds left in 3rd. Hattie Johnson finished off the Lady Eagles 3rd quarter scoring with 2 free throws for a 36-32 lead.

In the 4th quarter, Jenna Burchard had the next two Lady Eagle baskets from midrange before Lakyn Lockhart hit the long 3 to push the Lady Eagle lead to 43.-37 with just over 4 minutes remaining in 4th. With 1:41 the Lady Mustangs' Chloe Poe hit elbow 3 to cut Rhea County's lead to 43-42. With 1 minute remaining in regulation Woods had the put-back with 1 minute to put Lady Mustangs on top 46-44. Walker took a 49-45 lead with 30 seconds remaining. Lockhart had a nice drive for basket with harm and made the free throw to cut the Lady Mustang lead to 49-48 with 25 seconds remaining and then sliced through multiple defenders for the basket to tie game 50-50 with 7 seconds remaining. Eagle fans watched nervously as Walker drove the sideline and had 3 shots that all fell harmlessly off the rim and the 4 minute overtime was next.

At the 3 minute mark, Lockhart hit elbow 3 for a 53-50 lead Woods answered with her own 3 on the next trip down for Walker Valley. Earls hit a 3 to override Jenna Burchard's 2 to put Walker up 56-55 with 2 minutes remaining. Burchard hit a basket, grabbed a rebound and then canned 2 free throws to put the Eagles up 59-56 with just over 1 minute remaining. Emma Reeves grabbed a big rebound and Lockhart was fouled. She hit two big free throws to put the Eagles up 61-56 with 24 seconds remaining. Walker Valley went coast to coast for the basketball to pull with 61-58. Reeves added an insurance point to put the final margin at 62-58 as Walker missed on their last two shots of the game.

Big win for the Eagles as they are set for minimum # 2 seed for regions, depending on results of the championship game. Walker moves on to play McMinn on Monday night at 6 pm. Lakyn Lockhart had 26 points, 14 of those in the 4th quarter and overtime. Jenna Burchard had 17 points and double figure rebounds as well as scoring 10 of her points in 4th quarter and overtime. Also scoring for Eagles: Ruehling 9, Johnson 7, Shaver 2 and Emma Reeves 1.

Chloe Poe had 17 points to lead the Lady Mustangs. Woods and Bischof were also in double figures with 14 and 13 points for Walker. Also scoring for Walker: Earls 8, Lindsey 5, Hicks 1.