It was another classic battle between Cloudland and Unaka.
The ‘Landers picked up a thrilling 66-63 overtime victory over the Rangers in the Class 1-A Consolation game on Tuesday night at Happy Valley.
Both teams will travel for Saturday’s Region 1-A quarterfinals.
After Kingston Cole opened the scoring for Cloudland, Rylan Crabtree and Marcus Shomaker hit shots for the Rangers to take a 5-4 lead. Cloudland answered with another Cole bucket as well as a 3-pointer from Cooper Smith.
The back-and-forth continued as Unaka went on a 7-2 run to regain the lead, and the teams traded shots as the Rangers held a 16-13 advantage after a quarter of play.
Eli Morgan opened the second with a Cloudland bucket to trim the lead, but Aiden Walsh and John Hardin combined for seven straight points as UHS pushed the lead out to eight points.
The ‘Landers kept battling as Nick Caraway kickstarted a 13-5 Cloudland run to tie things up in the final minute of the second quarter.
Austin Lambert drained a trey and Caraway added two free throws for their respective squads as the Rangers held a 31-30 lead at the half.
The back-and-forth battle continued in the third as the teams traded points over the opening minutes of the half.
Lambert scored four straight as part of a 7-2 Unaka run as the Rangers held a 42-36 lead after three complete.
Cloudland, however, answered to open the fourth as Morgan and Smith hit 3-pointers to even things up at 42-42 a minute into the quarter.
After Logan Lewis broke the run with a Unaka 3-pointer, Cloudland went on an 8-2 run to take a 50-47 advantage midway through the quarter.
Unaka went back ahead as Walsh hit a pair of free throws and Hardin hit a jumper before Caraway tied things up at 51. After Walsh hit a jumper to put Unaka back up front, Caraway knocked down a 3-pointer with 40 seconds remaining.
Hardin knocked down a free throw in the final minute to tie things up and send the game to overtime.
In the extra period, Uriah Jarrett opened the scoring after Cloudland was able to run a minute and a half off the clock, but Hardin answered on the other end for the Rangers.
Caraway pushed Cloudland back in front with a pair of free throws, and Cloudland never looked back.
Unaka was able to cut the deficit to one a couple of times, but the ‘Landers were able to secure the win at the free-throw line.
Caraway led Cloudland with 31 points, while Morgan ended the night with 12 points. Smith scored 10 points.
Hardin finished with 13 points for the Rangers, while Walsh scored 12 points. Lambert and Shomaker had 11 and 10 points, respectively.
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