Cloudland made the best of the situation on Monday night.
The Lady ‘Landers picked up a 54-43 victory over Unaka in the District 1-A Consolation game, while the ‘Landers 69-52 win over South Greene in the boys’ consolation game.
On the girls’ side, Cloudland will travel to Cosby on Friday night, while Unaka will head to Northview Academy to open the Region 1-A tournament. The ‘Landers will travel to the loser of Tuesday’s District 2-A game between Northview and Cosby on Saturday.
In the girls’ matchup, Unaka set the tone early.
The Lady Rangers jumped out to a 10-6 lead behind six points from Kaitlyn Weaver and Unaka held a 13-6 lead after a quarter of play. Sarah Tipton and Sydney Markland hit shots that help push the Unaka lead to nine points. Cloudland’s Trinity Vines and Abbey Gouge trimmed the advantage to 20-17 at the half.
In the third quarter, defense made points come at a premium. Vines and Strickland pushed Cloudland into the lead, and Lisa Ellis added a 3-pointer. Unaka got on the board after a six-minute scoring drought but was held to just four points in the frame as CHS took a 29-24 lead into the final eight minutes.
In the opening minutes, Unaka battled back to tie the game at 33-33. However, Vines and Johanna Johnson hit back-to-back 3-pointers to push CHS back into the lead. From there, Strickland and company iced the game on the free throw line.
Strickland had a game-high 21 points, while Vines added 11 points to the Cloudland cause. Weaver recorded 13 points to pace Unaka. Myain Parlier had eight points and Erica Potter tossed in five points for Unaka.
In the boys’ game, both teams had slow starts. Noah Arnett put Cloudland on the board with a 3-pointer three minutes into the game. That sparked an 11-2 run capped by a Robert Leeper jumper. The ‘Landers held a 13-6 lead heading into the second quarter.
Josh Blair and Preston Benfield pushed the lead to nine points, but the Rebels used a 7-0 run to pull back within one point.
Brinkley Mull and Leeper hit back-to-back shots as CHS maintained a 23-20 lead at the half.
The third quarter saw Cloudland push the lead to double-digits and never looked back.
Arnett and Leeper had 13 points apiece, while Blair tossed in 11 points. Benfield had nine points. Mull scored six points.
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