Think again.
Any question about the health of the 6-foot-6 guard, who broke his wrist and missed seven games, was answered Sunday in a 53-39 win over Pittsburgh power Allderdice, Pa., at the Dunk 4 Diabetes Shootout at Walsh University.
Walker didn’t score every point for Stow-Munroe Falls (10-3), but he might as well have as the Division I Northeastern recruit led all scorers with 27 points.
Not bad for the Bulldogs (10-3), who are undefeated with him and 4-3 without him.
“It was kind of frustrating because it’s your last year with the team,” Walker said. “You want to be out there with your team, especially when you’re undefeated. I just wanted to be back.”
He finished 7-of-12 from the floor – 4-of-9 behind the arc – and pulled down six rebounds and had four assists. He did a little bit of everything, hitting three conventional buckets, while going 5-of-5 from the line, as well as a block and a steal.
With the game still in question at halftime, Walker took over in the third quarter, scoring 11 of his team’s 13 points in the frame, taking a 30-17 lead at intermission and making it a 19-point advantage heading to the fourth.
At the end of three quarters, Walker had outscored Allderdice, 25-24. The Bulldogs led 43-24.
“It’s an awesome feeling,” said Walker, who was named the team MVP in the game. “They were drawing up plays for me and fortunately they worked.
“You work as hard as you can and trust your coaches to pick the right plays. It was awesome.”
But for Walker it was nice just to be back in the lineup.
While he has labored in practice with a big pad on his cast for the last six weeks, Walker has come back strong since his return Friday (18 points) in a 61-53 win at Barberton.
He’s averaging 23.2 points per game in six appearances this season.
Walker was a force defensively as well as the Dragons only had one scorer in double figures in Ben Mickens (13).
“I’ve been playing all my life,” Walker said. “It’s starting to be fun. I’m 90 percent back. There’s still a little pain in there.”
Walker’s return had an effect on the rest of Stow as Matt Beech finished with 10 and Kyle Scelza, who had had been shouldering the load in his teammate’s absence, finished with six.
Not outrageous numbers, but good enough to complement the returning Northeast Ohio Conference River Division MVP against an Allderdice team that is 9-0 in the Pittsburgh area.
“He’s pretty good,” Close kidded. “He can shoot it and go to the rim. That alley-oop play (in the third quarter that made it 38-20) was nice. … Since he went down, that cut our playbook down to a third. We’re still a little rusty, but he played well today. He gets guys easy shots. Everybody gets a little better out there. He could come back and not take a shot and we’d be a better team.”
WARREN G. HARDING 75, MEDINA 50. At North Canton, in the opening game of the inaugural Dunk 4 Diabetes, Warren Harding (10-3) was too much for the Battling Bees (3-11).
Junior Billy Geschke had 19 points for Medina and senior center Mason Schreck battled inside for 12.
WGH led 34-21 at half.
"We competed, but they have a heckuva team," first-year Medina coach Anthony Stacey said.
The Bees have been without Michigan State signee Kenny Kaminski (shoulder injury) for the entire season.
"It would have been easy to throw in the towel when we were 1-9," Stacey said.
Jesse Harbin scored 27 points for Harding. Art Cook (13) and Rashib Gaston (11) also scored in twin figures for WGH.
LYNDHURST BRUSH 79, CLEVELAND VILLA ANGELA-ST. JOSEPH 66. At North Canton, seniors Curtis Oakley and Pharaoh Brown scored 24 and 20 points, respectively, for Brush in Sunday's win at Walsh University.