Unaka rules senior night with wins over Cloudland
Published 8:39 pm Sunday, February 5, 2023
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STAR CORRESPONDENT
Friday night was Senior Night at Unaka High School’s Snavely gymnasium and it was a good night for the Rangers and Lady Rangers as each earned a victory over Cloudland in Watauga Valley Conference action.
In the girl’s contest, senior Lyndie Ramsey’s floater in the lane with seven seconds remaining gave the Lady Rangers a 41-40 win and senior Joe-Z Blamo’s 26-point effort helped the Rangers to a blowout 84-46 win.
“We have had a hard year,” Lady Rangers head coach Kenneth Chambers said. “It’s been up and down with a lot of girls stepping in. They have had to learn to play together as a team and they wanted to play good for Lyndie too. We knew Cloudland is a good team that plays physical and we had to match their physicality.”
Unaka (8-16 overall, 3-4 WVC) opened with a 14-7 first-period lead but the Lady Highlanders (16-7 overall, 4-2 WVC) battled back to take a 24-23 halftime lead with senior Ella Benfield scoring ten of her team-high 20 points in the first half.
Cloudland extended to a 36-33 advantage going into the fourth period but Ramsey scored all eight Lady Rangers points in the fourth quarter and Unaka held Cloudland to just four points in the stanza.
“This game meant a lot to me,” Ramsey said. “It’s senior night and I wasn’t losing on senior night. Coach said to play straight up ‘d’ and if our man wasn’t covered, we had to give backside help and this game showed we can play with anybody.”
BOYS
Unaka 84
Cloudland 46
Junior post Brayden Powell gave the Rangers (5-20 overall, 2-5 WVC) an early lift scoring 10 of his 14 points in the first quarter as Unaka scored an easy win.
“Brayden has good touch and when teams don’t come out to challenge him we let him shoot,” Rangers head coach Aaron Dugger said. “We have been playing well lately with not a lot to show for it. But, I like where we are at right now. We have two road games left before the district tournament at South Greene and North Greene.”
The Rangers took a 34-14 halftime lead, holding the Highlanders (2-17 overall, 1-5 WVC) to 6-for-27 shooting (22.2 percent) in the first half. The Rangers outscored Cloudland 25-15 in the third period to go into the fourth quarter with a 59-29 advantage.
Senior guard Joe-Z Blamo had an explosive night scoring with 26 points and fellow senior Landon Ramsey added 21 for the Rangers, with Mason Wilson and Powell each adding 14 to the Unaka scoring ledger.
Former Ranger Ryan Sexton scored a team-high 11 points for the ‘Landers with Caden Clarke adding nine.
GIRLS
Unaka 41-40
Cloudland (40)
Benfield 20, Turbyfill 10, Christman 10.
Unaka (41)
Ramsey 28, E. Taylor 3, H. Taylor 4, Harrell 2, Faust 3, Hague 1.
Cloudland 7 17 12 4 – 40
Unaka 14 9 10 8 – 41
3-point goals: C 0. U 5 (Ramsey 3, Faust 1, E. Taylor 1).
BOYS
Unaka 84-46
Cloudland (46)
Morgan 6, Clarke 9, Sexton 11, A. Caraway 2, N. Caraway 6, Cole 3, Holtsclaw 3, Street 3,
McKinney 3.
Unaka (84)
Wilson 14, Douglas 5, Blamo 26, Ramsey 21, Crabtree 2, Lewis 1, C. Deyton 1, Powell 14.
Cloudland 8 6 15 17 – 46
Unaka 17 17 25 25 – 84
3-point goals: C 7 (Sexton 2, N. Caraway 2, Clarke 1, McKinney 1, Holtsclaw 1), U 5 (Wilson 4, Ramsey 1).
