In a Saturday matinee, Cloudland came up on the wrong side of a hard-fought battle.
The Lady ‘Landers fell 42-38 in overtime to North Greene inside Sonny Smith Gymnasium in District 1-A action, while the ‘Landers were unable to hold onto a halftime lead in a 60-40 decision to the Huskies.
In the girls’ game, it was a back-and-forth clash.
Cloudland held the upper hand in the opening minutes as Saharra McKinney and Karah Fields hit shots in the opening minutes, and Ella Benfield added a free throw as CHS held a 6-0 lead nearly three minutes into the game.
The Lady Huskies answered with a run of their own as they ended the quarter on an 11-4 run to take an 11-10 advantage into the second quarter.
Cloudland answered the bell and muscled back into the lead with points from Taylor Hicks and Isabella Christman. The teams swapped the leads the rest of the quarter as CHS maintained a 21-20 halftime lead.
Christman and McKinney opened the second half with back-to-back shots, but NG answered to even things up at 27-27 after the third quarter.
In the final quarter, the Lady Huskies saw Brooklyn Anderson open the scoring and sparked a quick 6-0 NG run. McKinney and Fields answered for Cloudland to spark an 8-0 Lady ‘Lander run.
North Greene, however, was able to tie things up at the free-throw line in the final minute to force overtime.
In the extra period, North Greene scored the first five points – all of which came on free throws – before Fields drained a 3-pointer with 16 seconds remaining to pull Cloudland back within two.
However, that was as close as Cloudland could get as NG secured the win on the free-throw line.
Fields led the Blue and Gold with 10 points, while McKinney and Christman finished with eight points apiece. Hicks ended the night with six points.
Sonya Wagner led NG with 13 points, while Shelby Davenport finished with 12 points – seven of which came in overtime.
In the boys’ game, points were hard to come by in the early going.
Caleb Sluder opened the scoring midway through the first quarter with a trey.
After the Huskies hit a 3-pointer to get on the board with 2:21 on the board, Sluder added five quick points to end the quarter to give CHS an 8-3 lead after a quarter of play.
Cloudland pushed the lead to nine in the opening minutes of the second with points from Gage McKinney and Eli Benfield. Dylan
McClellan countered an NG bucket and added a basket at the buzzer to send Cloudland into the locker room with a 16-11 halftime advantage.
The Huskies set the tone early in the third.
Jason Britton and Olli Saarelo hit back-to-back shots for a quick 5-0 NG run. After McClellan added a bucket for Cloudland, North Greene reeled off a quick 12-0 run to take the lead.
Cloudland continued to battle with points from Caden Clarke, Dylan Shell, and Sluder, but NG held a 37-26 lead after three-quarters of play.
The ‘Landers continued to fight in the final quarter but were unable to mount a rally in the closing minutes.
Sluder ended the game with 12 points to lead Cloudland. Shell added 11 points, and McClellan added six points.
Jasper Brand led North Greene with 16 points.
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