December 30, 2021
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
D’Anthony Walton considered himself just an average scorer last year when he was one of the several weapons in an Alexandria arsenal with a big presence inside.
This year without some of those same weapons to help him along he wants to be an even stronger scorer. And so far, he is.
The smooth 6-foot-4 senior went for 40 in the opening round of the Champions Boys Christmas Classic and followed it Wednesday with a game-high 25 points in a 66-41 win over Piedmont that gave the Valley Cubs the championship trophy and Walton the MVP plaque.
He led the county in scoring going into Christmas and remains there entering the new year with a whopping 30.0 average.
“This summer really helped me a lot,” he said. “I really wanted to up my scoring rate and stuff like that, so I was putting in a lot of work this summer. I’d work out in the morning and then I’d go shoot in the afternoon.
“And I play with a good travel ball team, so that really helps, playing against some of the best players in the country.”
He’s also gotten better from a source a little closer to home, going directly against Valley Cubs assistant coach Will Ginn every day in practice.
“He teaches you a lot of stuff when you’re playing against him,” Walton said. “It’s really a challenge to guard him because he’s got a quick first step. And he plays pretty good defense on me when we play pick up.”
The championship game was expected to match up two of the county’s most prolific scorers – Walton and Piedmont’s Alex Odam. But about 30 minutes before tip Bulldogs coach JoJo Odam scratched his son over the foot injury he sustained in Tuesday’s semifinals.
The junior guard who recently surpassed the 2,000-point plateau hurt his left foot during the third quarter against Fort Payne. He stayed in the game and eventually hit the game-winning shot with 15 seconds left, but he woke up Wednesday morning with a knot the size of his fist on the outside of his foot.
Not the combination of body parts anyone wants to wake up to in the morning.
Wednesday morning X-rays didn’t reveal a break, but he is expected to be out until the county tournament in mid-January. He was on the Piedmont bench in a Davidson sweat shirt and street clothes cheering on his teammates.
It was the first time, he said, he had missed a game on any level for any reason. He still made the all-tournament team.
“It’s tough sitting on the side like that,” he said. “I love supporting them and cheering them on, but it’s still tough not being able to be out there with them.”
In his absence, Omarion Foster handled the ball and Cole Wilson and freshman Ish Bethel provided the scoring. Wilson scored 18 points on the strength of five 3-pointers and Bethel scored 11. Odam had been averaging 23 a game.
“I thought he did a great job,” JoJo Odam said of Foster. “He stepped up. The role was not what he was used to doing and he handled it about as well as you could ask. I’m super proud of all of them. I think everybody stepped up. I guess that’s the old saying of ‘next man up’. I think everybody did a good job of stepping up tonight.”
Odam’s absence also had an effect on the Valley Cubs. They never did shake the Bulldogs until the second half.
“Sometimes you worry because your players kind of have a letdown,” Alexandria coach Jason Johnson said. “They were excited about getting to play against Odam and then when he unfortunately wasn’t able to play because of injury I think it was a letdown on our guys.
“I warned them before the game it didn’t matter who was playing let’s just get out and play. But you could see we struggled a pretty good bit. We just looked lethargic out there tonight in the first half, but we picked it up in the second half and a lot of it was because we made some shots.” [**read more]
All-Tournament Team
MVP: D’Anthony Walton, Alexandria
Julian Wright, Alexandria
Alex Odam, Piedmont
Omarion Foster, Piedmont
Evan Watson, Pell City
Michael Snow, Pell City
Malik Turner, Fort Payne
Walker Osteen, White Plains
**When you click read more you will be taken to the EA Sports Today website. Please make sure to come back to read more Calhoun County News.
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