On Monday night at Bobby Snyder gym in the district 1A consolation game, Cloudland built on a three-point halftime lead and rolled to a 69-52 victory over South Greene.

South Greene trailed 19-11 in the early portion of the second period but junior forward Nathan Hall got hot and scored 10-second quarter points as the Rebels (5-27 overall) pulled to within 23-20 at the half. Hall knocked down a pair of trey’s and a pair of two-point baskets in the run.

“We have to get to where we play better early,” said Highlanders head coach Gary Harrison. “Better defensively especially. If we could bottle what we do in the third quarter we might be the best second half team in East Tennessee.”

Robert Leeper led the Cloudland attack with six first half points and four rebounds while Hall had a dozen points at the break for South Greene.

Brinkley Mull, Preston Benfield and Noah Arnett each had two-point buckets for the Highlanders (17-17 overall) to open the third period as Cloudland built a 29-20 lead. Jake Standridge hit a deuce in the paint for the Rebels and Arnett answered with a corner three-ball.

Standridge then completed a three-point play to cut the ‘Landers lead to 32-25 with 4:24 showing on the third-period clock. Leeper then scored for the ‘Landers and Benfield followed with a three-point play as Cloudland opened up a 38-25 lead.

SG closed to within 39-30 on baskets from Hall and Standridge but Hunter Shell hit a trey for Cloudland with 19.1 ticks left on the third-period clock.

Cloudland opened the fourth quarter with a 14-point run with Josh Blair hitting a deuce, a three and two free throws, while Leeper scored a deuce and three free throws as the ‘Landers opened up a 55-32 lead before Standridge scored for South Greene.

“Josh Blair and Noah Arnett – Mr. Consistency – got us rolling in the fourth quarter,” Harrison said. “Until then we hadn’t set the tone we wanted to on defense. For us, our offense comes from defense.”

Ayden Stills three-point play helped the Rebels close to within 61-48 with 1:56 remaining in the contest. Two free throws from Dillon Johnson made it a 63-50 game with 1:09 left.

Boys

District 1A consolation game

Cloudland 69-52

South Greene (52)

Hall 14, Turner 2, Compton 2, Standridge 12, Stills 9, Burns 4, Fillers 2, Crum 2, Carter 2, Myers 3.

Cloudland (69)

Arnett 13, Mull 6, P. Benfield 9, Leeper 13, Potter 2, Blair 11, Shell 11, Johnson 2, Hicks 2.

South Greene 6 14 12 20 – 52

Cloudland 13 10 18 28 – 69

3-point goals : SG 2 (Hall 2), C 5 (Arnett 2, Shell 2, Blair 1)