BY DANNY BLEVINS

STAR CORRESPONDENT

Cloudland Middle School girls’ basketball team took a victory against Johnson County middle on Monday night by a score of 42-21.

A spectator was heard saying that the Cloudland team was so good, they made good teams look bad. That sums up the night’s play between these two squads.

Johnson County came into the game with a very good team. They were quick in the guard possessions, had some height in the post possession and played aggressively from one end of the court to the other.

Cloudland did all of those things also, but only better.

Cloudland’s go-to defense is a full-court press that will force any team to turn over the ball. Cloudland’s guards are so quick, some teams cannot get the ball past the half-court line, and if they do, they can expect a trap at half-court by two or three of Cloudland’s very aggressive players.

If an opposing team can get the ball to within shooting range of their goal, they have to deal with Saharra Mckinney or Izabella Christman, who are 5-foot 10-inch post players. Cloudland almost won a state title using this defense last year and most of the time it takes them to victory over any team they face.

The first quarter opened with an even contest. For a few minutes, the Jr. Lady Longhorns held the Cloudland shooters to only six points but then Mckinney started taking over the game and the game began to change.

With points from Ryan Turbyfill, Christman and Bella Clawson along with Mckinney’s nine points, Cloudland had jumped out to a nine-point lead by the end of the first quarter and would never look back.

During the second period of play, Cloudland’s press defense began shutting down all of the Johnson County’s scorers. The Cloudland defense and offense both played like a well-oiled machine, and Cloudland held the Longhorns to only two points in the quarter.

By halftime, the teams went into their locker rooms with the score 29-9 and Cloudland held a 20-point lead. For all practical purposes, the game was over.

During the third period, Cloudland’s defense shut down Johnson County once again and at the end of the third, Johnson County had only scored three points.

Cloudland started replacing the starters with girls from their bench during the third period, but they too had learned the defensive scheme that has come to define this Cloudland team.

They forced turnovers and took those to the hoop on the other end of the court scoring seven more points for Cloudland. When the third quarter ended, Cloudland held a 36-12 lead.

Johnson County added nine points during the fourth quarter and Cloudland’s Clawson and Christman added to their night’s totals to bring the final score to 42-21.

Cloudland was led in scoring on the night by their “Miss Everything”, Mckinney, who scored 16 points. Turbyfill chipped in nine points, Christman had seven, Bella Clawson had five, Layken Blair scored three and Mia Clark finished the night with two points.

Johnson County was led in scoring by Sierra Green who scored 10 points. Makenzie Kelly had six points, Aubree Glenn added three and Savanna Dowell finished with two points.

Cloudland will play the Hunter Lady Tigers at Hunter tonight with the games starting at 4:00 pm.