Cloudland boys’ basketball got back on track in the District 1-A race.
The ‘Landers pulled away in the second half to take a 52-34 win over South Greene inside Sonny Smith Gymnasium. In the girls’ game, Cloudland was unable to pull off the upset bid in a 54-37 loss to the defending state champion Lady Rebels.
In the boys’ game, Cloudland jumped out to a 4-2 lead over the first six minutes. The Rebels, however, answered with a 5-0 run to take a 7-6 lead into the first quarter.
Cloudland took control in the second stanza.
Noah Arnett hit back-to-back shots to cap off a 7-0 run. That was the beginning of a 13-4 run over the quarter as CHS took a 19-11 lead into the locker room at the half.
A third-quarter run started by Robert Leeper pushed the lead to 18 points, and CHS never looked back.
Leeper had a game-high 25 points. Preston Benfield had had 11 points. Arnett had six points in the game.
The girls’ game saw Cloudland fall behind early as the Lady Rebels jumped out to a 9-0 lead. Trinity Vines and Lisa Elis hit buckets to end the quarter to close the CHS gap to 11-4 at the end of the quarter.
Shian Strickland hit a trey to open the second quarter, but SG pushed the lead back to double-digits. The teams traded shots to end the frame as the Lady Rebels held a 30-20 halftime lead.
Johanna Johnson and Strickland opened the second half with big shots as CHS pulled back with five points. However, that was as close as they could get over the rest of the way.
Johnson had 11 points to lead Cloudland, while Strickland had 10 points. Vines had seven points. DonRae Taylor had six points for Cloudland.
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