BY DANNY BLEVINS

STAR CORRESPONDENT

I am sure that Sonny Smith Gymnasium has witnessed many exciting basketball games in its 60-year history. On Monday night, one more could be added to that list as the Cloudland Highlander boys defeated the Johnson County Longhorns 61-59 in a thrilling contest.

The game had everything in it from clutch foul shooting, must-make jump shots, and a clock controversy. When it was finished, everyone knew they had watched basketball at its most exciting.

There is a storied history between the Highlanders and the Longhorns. They have played many games and anytime they are playing each other, break out the popcorn because it is going to be a show. Monday night was no different.

The first quarter opened with Cloudland using a full-court press to force turnovers from the Longhorns. Cloudland’s good defense and good rebounding seemed to take the Longhorns out of their rhythm, and for a few minutes, they could not buy a bucket.

Cloudland jumped out to an early lead because of this but by the end of the first quarter, their lead had shrunk to only five as they went into the second quarter with the score 18-13.

The second quarter was dominated by Elijah Blair and Bentley Gilbert who had 11 and seven points respectively. Johnson County held its own, however, and kept the score close.

By the end of the first half, Cloudland had a 35-27 lead and both teams knew this was still anyone’s game.

The third quarter was a disaster for Cloudland because they simply could not get their buckets to fall.

On one possession they shot at the goal four times from less than three feet and still could not get the points. Meanwhile, Johnson County was on a scoring roll and they took advantage of Cloudland’s problems.

The score was tied at 42 with one minute left in the quarter when Michael Oxentine drained a three giving Johnson County their first lead of the game.

Conner Birchfield came back and hit a bucket and Hunter Shell drained one also to give Cloudland a narrow 47-45 lead going into the fourth quarter.

The fourth quarter saw the lead change hands several times and Cloudland held a 57-56 lead with 35 seconds left in the game. Hunter Shell put in a bucket with 21 seconds left making the score 59-56.

Then Johnson County’s Trevor Gentry turned the ball over with 5.7 seconds left. It looked like the game was in the bag for Cloudland. It was not.

Johnson County fouled Conner Birchfield with 4.7 seconds left and he hit both giving Cloudland a five-point lead.

Johnson County’s Clayton Cross then hit a three making it a two-point game with 1.4 seconds left on the clock. As soon as he hit this bucket, Johnson County’s Coach Austin Atwood used his last timeout before Cloudland could in-bounds the ball.

On the very next play, Johnson County stole the ball and called another timeout. They argued with the referees that there were 0.5 seconds left on the clock and that they had one more timeout but according to the official scorer’s book they had used all of their timeouts and the game was over.

The game ended and Johnson County had to accept the ruling of the records keeper and the referees though it was apparent they were not happy.

After the game Cloudland’s Coach Gary Harrison was pleased with his boys’ effort.

“I am very proud of every one of our boys tonight. They played a good game and put in a ton of effort. We need to play smarter, but I can see a lot of improvement over the last couple of games. I am happy for the boys. It may be an ugly win, but it is a win.”

Cloudland was led in scoring by Elijah Blair who had 23 points. Hunter Shell chipped in 18 points, Bentley Gilbert had seven points and Conner Birchfield had six points for Cloudland.

Johnson County was led in scoring by Lucas Phillips who scored 23 points. Ethan Bowers scored eight, Clayton Cross chipped in seven and Gavin Ward had seven points for the Longhorns.