On Friday night at Donald Ensor court at Snavely gym there was a titanic struggle and a capitulation. The Cloudland Highlanders survived a last second shot that would have forced overtime in a 50-47 Watauga Valley Conference win over the Unaka Rangers after the Lady Highlanders showed total domination of the Lady Rangers with a 56-25 win.

The win by the Lady ‘Landers was so convincing that Lady Rangers head coach Kenneth Chambers pulled his starters from the court with over five minutes left and the Rangers trailing by 20-plus points. Nothing the Rangers tried on this night worked while everything worked for the ‘Landers.

“We played great defense tonight,” Lady ‘Landers head coach Mike Lunsford said. “Our guards, Meg, Kenzie, Jaz, Lulu all did a tremendous job with weak side help and our posts did a great job of limiting Myah’s touches. It was all about defense. All of our offense came off what we did on defense.”

Cloudland (17-6, 6-2) led the entire way leading 17-6 after one quarter and 33-18 at the half. The Rangers (11-15, 6-3) scored just seven total second half points and shot 7-for-29 (24.1 percent) from the floor including one-for-nine (11.1 percent) from three-point range.

Senior post Stacia Wilson had a game high 16 points for Cloudland while Unaka senior post Myah Parlier scored 10 points to lead the Rangers.

BOYS

This clash went down to the buzzer as Unaka guard Will Sexton’s desperation 3-ball hit off front rim just inches from tying the game. Cloudland guard Hunter Shell was the scoring star of the game for the ‘Landers with 20 points – many coming at critical junctures – while senior post Josh Blair added 10 points and nine rebounds.

“I have been telling them we need to rebound better,” ‘Landers head coach Gary Harrison said. “But, I neglected to tell them to box out. I guess that’s like trying to win the Daytona 500 without starting the car, so from now on my message is to box out then rebound.”

Unaka senior guard Isaac Hill’s slashing drives to the basket had the ‘Landers searching for a way to defense him as he scored 12 of his 16 points in the first half and the teams went into the locker room knotted at 31-31.

The Rangers (10-14, 2-7) took a 46-45 lead going into the fourth quarter with junior forward Ryan Johnson hitting four 3-balls in the quarter. Cloudland scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter – with Blair’s deuce giving Cloudland a lead they would not relinquish – to take a 52-46 lead before a bucket from Hill stopped the run.

“It’s a big win for us,” Blair said. “A road win is great. They beat us by five earlier and we didn’t play well in that game. It was big for all of us to get this one.”

Unaka closed to within 54-53 on five points from senior forward John Ramsey who scored a deuce and a trey in consecutive possessions. Ramsey scored a game high 21 points with seven boards and did a nice job defensively in the post.

The ‘Landers (9-15, 3-5) got a pair of free throws from Shell to open a 56-53 lead and got a free throw from Dillon Johnson to make it a four point advantage. A Ramsey trey closed Unaka to a one point deficit. The Rangers – now trailing by three – took possession with 6.8 seconds on the clock and worked it to Sexton at the top of the key from where he took the last second shot.