A record-setting game from Cloudland’s Preston Benfield pushed the Highlanders to a 82-68 victory over the Warriors Saturday night inside of Happy Valley High School.

Benfield set a personal record, when he recorded a whopping 36 points.

“It feels good, but it feels better to get that win,” Benfield said.” We have been needing one of those big wins for a while now.”

According to the high scorer, the Highlanders (5-10, 1-3) stepped up defensively, after having a hard time stopping University High, losing to the Bucs 65-61 Friday night.

“It came down to defense, last night in the first half against UH,” Benfield said. “We lost to them in the first half, because I didn’t play any defense and we just had a team that didn’t play much. But we came out in that second half and we turned it on, but it was to late. Tonight we just came out and we played as hard as we could on defense and that paid off for us. I mean that’s where my points came from. The defense creates the offense.

On Happy Valley’s side of the ball, Josh Hammonds led with 14, while Dillon Barlow followed closely with 13.

“No. 20 (Hammonds) he’s a heck of a player,but tonight we just figured out how to stop him,” Benfield said.  “And once we slowed him down we pretty much figured it out, but they played pretty good tonight.”

Cloundland 82

Pr. Benfield 36, Vines 17, Wagoner 14, Z. Benfield 6, Woods 5, Trivette 2, Mull 2

Happy Valley 68

Hammonds 14, Barlow 13, Hyder 8, Matherly 8, Sams 8, Blevins 6, Hicks 4, Cha. Young 3, Chr. Young 2, Barnett 2

Cloudland 15 22 22 23 — 82

Happy Valley 9 17 15 29 — 68

3-point goals— C. 4 (Benfield 3, Woods 1) H. (Matherly 2, Cha. Young 1, Sams 1)