Unaka had the upper hand on Monday night.
The Lady Rangers captured a 54-33 win over Cloudland in the Region 1-A Semifinals at West Ridge to secure a spot in Wednesday’s championship game.
Unaka also secured a spot in Saturday’s substate round. Cloudland’s season comes to a close.
Michelle Shields provided a spark for Unaka early on with back-to-back 3-pointers, while Regan Blair answered with a 3-pointer for the Lady ‘Landers. Unaka extended the lead to 14-4 before Makenzie Street drained a 3-pointer at the buzzer to trim the Unaka lead to 14-7 after a quarter of play.
Keyona Hague scored back-to-back baskets for Unaka to open the second quarter, but Makinna Shell and Eowyn McCoury sandwiched a Lauren Lund 3-pointer to trim the lead for CHS.
The Lady Rangers took a 13-point advantage midway through the second off a Brooklyn Campbell basket.
Cloudland, however, battled back as Street, Blair, and Shell sparked an 11-4 run to close the half.
Unaka led 32-26 at the break.
Points were extremely hard to come by in the second half.
The Lady Rangers were able to keep Cloudland off the scoreboard while adding eight points to the lead to take a 41-26 advantage into the final quarter.
Cloudland continued to battle, but Unaka was able to keep Cloudland at bay.
Shields led the way with 25 points for Unaka. Hague scored 11 points, while Campbell added nine points.
Street finished with 16 points to lead Cloudland. Blair and Shell scored six points apiece.
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