Cloudland earns sweep of Providence Academy

Published 11:15 pm Wednesday, January 15, 2020

By Allen LaMountain

BY ALLEN LAMOUNTAIN
STAR CORRESPONDENT
On Tuesday night the Cloudland Highlanders inside / outside duo of Elijah Blair and Hunter Shell combined for 40 points as the ‘Landers dominated Providence Academy 67-46 at Sonny Smith gymnasium in a non-conference boys basketball clash.
“We got the ball inside and we missed a few early but we played better down the stretch with better defense,” ‘Landers head coach Gary Harrison said. “We missed some easy ones that will haunt you but our kids did all the little things you have to do – play defense, force turnovers and rebound.”
Cloudland (12-6 overall) got 21 points from Shell as he was Mr. Outside canning five trey’s as he scored 12 first-half points to help the ‘Landers to a 37-24 halftime lead.
Blair scored 14 of his 19 points in the first half, taking over in the second period with five buckets in the paint.
Guard Chris Miller scored a game-high 25 points for the Knights with a variety of shots including a pair of trey’s but mostly driving to the hoop in transition.
Cloudland extended to a 52-33 advantage going into the fourth quarter and the ‘Landers cruised from there.
Bentley Gilbert added eight points to the Cloudland scoring ledger and Hayden Shell added six more. Post Toby Crabtree had seven points for Providence.
—
BOYS
Cloudland 67-46
Providence (46)
Miller 25, Runnels 2, Hoover 2, Crabtree 7, Zepada 3, McAllister 3, Davison 2, Holmes 2.
Cloudland (67)
Childress 2, Birchfield 4, D. Shell 3, Julian 2, Hicks 2, Gilbert 8, Ha. Shell 6, Hu. Shell 21, E. Blair 19.
Providence 13  11  13   9 – 46
Cloudland   13 24  15 15 – 67
3-point shots: P 4 (Miller 2, Zepada, McAllister). C 7 (Hu. Shell 5, Ha. Shell 2).
GIRLS
Cloudland…..58
Providence… 18
Holding the Lady Knights to three first-half points the Lady Highlanders (15-2) were able to race to a 32-3 halftime lead and won going away. Gracie Freeman had a game-high 11 points with Kenzie Birchfield and Jasmine Birchfield each contributing 10 to the winning effort.
“I was really happy with the way we rebounded,” Lady ‘Landers head coach Matt Birchfield said. “With our size, it is important for us to win the rebound battle.
“We’ll lose a lot of games if we don’t win the rebound battle. We are building depth and it was good to get a lot of minutes out of a lot of kids.”
Everyone contributed in this one with 11 different players scoring points as Birchfield was able to empty his bench and get everyone playing time.
For Providence, the Lady Knights slow start doomed them as they couldn’t solve the Lady ‘Landers press defense with 14 first-half turnovers.
Guard Cristen Sholes scored 10 points for the Lady Knights to lead the way with Maddie Kyler adding three.
—
GIRLS
Cloudland 58-18
Providence (18)
Sholes 10, Thompson 2, Kyler 3, McAllister 1, Beverly 2
Cloudland (58)
Caraway 5, Hicks 4, Blair 2, K. Birchfield 10, Freeman 11, J. Birchfield 10, L. Birchfield 4, M. Benfield 4, Kaylen Fields 2, Karah Fields 4, E. Benfield 2.
Providence  2   1   8   7 – 18
Cloudland  15 18 12 14 – 58
3-point goals: P 2 (Sholes, Kyler). C 4 (K. Birchfield 2, Freeman, Caraway).

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