BY DANNY BLEVINS

STAR CORRESPONDENT

Cloudland Middle head coach Patrick Johnson came into Monday night’s game against Johnson County excited about his team.

They had taken their first win of the year against a very good Hunter team last week and Coach Johnson was expecting good things from his team in the future.

Johnson County had other ideas and it came in the form of a full-court press and tough post players that almost got every rebound on the night. The result would be a 41-19 loss for the Jr. ‘Landers.

The first quarter opened with Cloudland picking up where they had stopped last week. They played good defense and were quick enough to get the clear shots.

For most of the quarter, the two teams traded leads and at one point, Cloudland held a six-point lead against the Longhorns.

Johnson County’s advantages began to surface during the end of the quarter.

By the time the buzzer sounded to end the quarter, Johnson County was outrebounding the Landers and using their height advantage to block shots and score on the inside.

They were also getting their defense in high gear and were using fast breaks to get to the goal and score quickly.

Cloudland’s problems surfaced early and often in the form of the height advantage that the Longhorns possessed. Cloudland could not get a rebound.

The Longhorns were able to get three or four shots at the goal almost every time down the court. When the period ended and Cloudland was only down by two points.

The score stood at 9-7 at the beginning of the second quarter and there was more basketball to play.

During the second quarter, Johnson County began to pull away on the scoreboard as they capitalized on Cloudland turnovers.  That along with not being able to rebound really hurt the Landers in the second quarter and led to the teams going into the half with the score 21-11 in favor of Johnson County.

The Cloudland boys gave everything they had during the third quarter to try to stop the avalanche of Longhorn scoring but Johnson County’s height advantage kept the score out of reach.

Though Cloudland pulled to within nine points halfway through the third, the Longhorns kept the pressure on Cloudland and by the end of the quarter, Johnson County was up by 13 points and the score was 29-16.

Johnson County’s press defense kept the pressure on the Highlanders during the last quarter and only allowed Cloudland to score one point in the quarter.

When the buzzer sounded to end the game, the score stood at 41-19 and Cloudland knew they had played a much better team.

Coach Johnson was disappointed after the game.

“Their size killed us, and we just played sloppy ball. We made too many turnovers and just could not rebound,” said Johnson.

“I am proud of our team for not giving up and for hustling to the end, but we have to figure out a way to compete with the teams that have a size advantage on us.”

Cloudland was led in scoring by Dylan McClellan who had seven points on the night. Nick Caraway had five points, Auston Caraway had four, Hayden Arnett had two and Eli Morgan finished the night with one point.

For Johnson County Dalton Pope led all scorers with 19 points. Simcox had 11, Potter had three, Grill had two, Fenner had two, Stout had two and Dickens also had two points for the Longhorns.

Cloudland Middle School will play Hunter Middle at Hunter tonight. The games start at 4 pm.