Staff Photo by Dan Henry Walker Valley High School's Brooke Hamby (3) fights for possession of the ball against Chattanooga Christian School's Brandis Dyer (20) during the fourth quarter of play at the Mustang's home gym Tuesday evening.

CLEVELAND, Tenn. — What Walker Valley girls’ basketball coach David Tucker doesn’t know is whether the 3-point shot the Lady Mustangs are known for will fall from game to game.

But as long as the Lady Mustangs play defense like they did against Chattanooga Christian in a TSSAA Hall of Fame season opener Tuesday, his team will be fine.

Walker Valley, behind five steals apiece from Brooke Hamby and Alli Moreland, forced 39 turnovers in a 49-36 victory over the Lady Chargers.

“We were rusty, but we played good defense,” Tucker said. “We had 25 turnovers, but we made them turn the ball over.”

The Lady Mustangs jumped out to a 14-point lead early and led 16-8 at the end of the first quarter. The Lady Chargers started to settle down offensively and cut the lead to 21-16 before free throws by Hamby and Courtney Gobble gave Walker Valley a 23-16 lead at halftime.

The margin hovered from three to six points for most of the second half before the Lady Mustangs started to convert turnovers into points again. After a Hamby free throw, Moreland stole the inbounds pass and found Hamby cutting for a layup to make it 35-28.

The Lady Mustangs converted six of seven free throws and added three uncontested layups on drives to the hoop.

“Our offense was awful,” Tucker said. “We came up big late in the game with a couple of big steals and the ability to hit free throws.”

Hamby had 12 points to lead the Lady Mustangs, while Moreland had 11. Lacey Allen had seven points and five assists.

The turnovers hurt the Lady Chargers (0-1), who were led by Chauncey Simmons’ eight points.

“We’re not going to win with 39 turnovers,” CCS coach Pam Hindman said. “We’re not there yet — we can’t play at that pace now. We have talented kids and we’re trying to get there, but we’re not at that level yet.”

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