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STAR CORRESPONDENT

Freshman Darian Jackson scored a game-high 26 points as Happy Valley snapped a seven-game losing streak with a 76-44 win over Cloudland on Friday night at Bayless Gymnasium. In girls’ basketball action, the Lady Highlanders dominated the Lady Warriors by a 65-32 score with Mackenzie Street scoring a game-high 14 points.

“I’m looking at Tuesday when West Greene comes in here for a conference game,” Jackson said. “I don’t know if we have ever been 1-0 in conference so that’s what I want. I felt it was easy at the beginning of the game because we had a lead and I felt like I could be free to jump into the ball and make plays.”

Cloudland (1-2 overall) had its only lead of the game at 11-10 at the end of the first quarter as Jackson took over in the second period hitting five consecutive baskets (two trey’s) as HV went on a 12-0 run to open the period and take a 22-11 advantage.

That lead would extend to 34-24 at the half with Jackson scoring 12 first-half points. The Warriors (1-7 overall) continued to press its lead and went into the final period with a 60-35 lead. The Warriors forced 25 Cloudland turnovers in this one which led to many breakaway buckets for HV.

“The defense definitely carried us tonight and that is what I want to be our identity,” Warriors head coach Shane Williams said. “Darian is just a freshman but he is a very talented kid but he is headstrong at times and wants to do things his way. We want to show him how to play big time high school basketball and be a leader for this team.”

Dylan Furr added 15 points with Artee Bahn scoring 13 and Austin Nickles was good for 12 points. For Cloudland Cooper Smith scored nine points to lead the way.

BOYS

Happy Valley 76-44

Cloudland (44)

Barnett 6, Jarrett 7, Carpenter 3, Smith 9, Caraway 7, K. Cole 7, McClellan 5.

Happy Valley (76)

Jackson 26, Furr 15, Grindstaff 3, Bahn 13, Nickles 12, Sowards 7.

Cloudland 11 13 9 11 – 44

Happy Valley 10 24 26 16 – 76

3-point goals: C 1 (Barnett 1), HV 3 (Jackson 2, Grindstaff 1)

GIRLS

Cloudland 65, Happy Valley 32

The Lady Highlanders (6-0 overall) came out firing threes from every angle in the first period – hitting on six treys in the opening stanza to take a 26-14 first period advantage. The ‘Landers were good for nine triples in this one with Ryan Turbyfill good for three treys.

“I thought we got a lot of good minutes out of a lot of kids,” Lady ‘Landers head coach Matt Birchfield said. “We defended the ball well and cut off the baseline which is a big part of our defense. We came out of the gate big and every week we see improvement. Saharra and Izabella were injured last year and they are getting stronger as we go and we hope that by Christmas when the conference games start that we are playing our best basketball.”

Makenzie Street was good for a pair of treys with Ewyon McCurry, Reagan Blair, Makinna Shell, and Saharra McKinney each dropping a dime for the ‘Landers.

Cloudland took a 41-20 halftime advantage and held HV to single-digit scoring in the last three quarters. Christman finished with 13 points while Turbyfill added 12.

Marcida Moore scored a team-high 13 points for Happy Valley.

GIRLS

Cloudland 65-32

Cloudland (65)

13. McCurry 3, Blair 7, Street 14, Shell 9, S. McCurry 2, McKinney 5, Turbyfill 12, Christman 13.

Happy Valley (32)

Parker 8, Anderson 7, M. Moore 13, Sommers 4.

Cloudland 26 15 12 12 – 65

Happy Valley 14 6 8 4 – 32

3-point goals: C 9 (Turbyfill 3, Street 2, McKinney 1, E. McCurry 1, Blair 1, Shell 1), HV 2

(Parker 1, Moore 1)