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STAR CORRESPONDENT

Although seeded fourth coming into Saturday night’s District 1-1A boys semifinals, the Cloudland Highlanders were looking to pull a stunner against the University Bucs who held the top spot entering the night’s first contest at Happy Valley High School.

Unfortunately, the Bucs were just too much to handle offensively as University dispatched the Highlanders 73-34 to earn a title shot against North Greene.

Cloudland plays Unaka for third place prior to the championship game on Tuesday.

University has built a reputation for its aggressive defense which was put on display in this contest which led to several easy transition baskets which led to a 52-16 lead after the first 16 minutes of play.

The Bucs found their offense behind double figure scoring in the half from Brady Weems who dropped in 13 while teammate Andrew Cole added 12 to help establish the 36-point lead.

With the daunting task of trying to dig out of a deep hole, the Highlanders were unable to catch up with the Bucs in the second half as they would drop to the consolation contest with the loss.

University was hot from the outside accounting for 33 points from beyond the arc on 11 treys in the contest.

Weems and Peter Boynewicz paced the victors with a game-high 15 points each. Cole also recorded double digits finishing with 14 points.

Nick Carraway was the only Highlander to reach double figures with 14 points. Cooper Smith chipped in with 10 points. Kingston Cole (4), Bryce Birchfield (2), Urijah Jarrett (2), and Cass Turbyfill (2) closed out the scoring for Cloudland.