ROAN MOUNTAIN— A

lover of cheese prefers their Colby to have a slight chill, but at Cloudland High, the ‘Lander fans prefer their Colby as hot as possible.

They got just that on Saturday night inside Cloudland’s gym as Colby Birchfield set the nets on fire stroking the cotton to the tune of a game-high 29 points leading the Highlanders to the Region 1-A Semifinals on Tuesdayagainst Cosby with an 89-54 win over the Hancock County Indians.

“They all stepped up tonight,” said ‘Lander head coach Gary Harrison. “We knew without Preston that nobody was going to have to do one thing more, but everybody was going to have to do a whole lot more and that’s the way we played.”

Birchfield tallied 15 points in the opening half to make sure his team got off to a solid start to take a 41-31 lead into the locker room at the break.

With 1,000-point scorer Preston Benfield on the bench with an injury, Birchfield had plenty of help as the Potter boys—Jesse and Jason were doing their part scoring seven and six points respectively.

Chris Wagoner added five points in the first 16 minutes of play as well.

Seth Heck was battling to keep the Indians from being run out of the gym as he knocked down 10 points in the half. David Way added seven points.

The ‘Landers really got wound up in the second half on both sides of the ball as they would score 48 points while holding Hancock Co. to only 23 second-half points defensively.

Birchfield showed consistency by added 14 more in the second half to close out his evening. Wagoner found the shooter’s touch by nailing three treys to finish with 14 points.

Jesse Potter also found double figures with 12.

Dalton Vines netted eight and Brinkley Mull seven as a total of 10 ‘Landers scored in the contest.

Heck was the leading scorer for the Indians with 15 while Holden Fleenor tossed in 12 points.

“We are in the final 32 now and there are no bad teams left,” added Harrison. “Hancock Co. played hard and give credit to them and their coaches, but our kids really stepped up and shot the ball well.”

Cloudland will play Cosby at 7:30 pm on Tuesday at Chuckey-Doak Middle School looking to gain a berth in the regional finals and more importantly a sub-state berth.

———–

Region 1-A Boys’ Quarterfinals

Cloudland, 89-54

Hancock Co. (54)

David Way 9, Keaton Gibson 6, Tristan Dean 7, Seth Heck 15, Holden Fleenor 12, Austin Surgenor 5.

Cloudland (89)

Noah Arnett 3, Colby Birchfield 29, Joseph Trivette 3, Brinkley Mull 7, Josh Blair 5, Malachi Benfield 2, Chris Wagoner 14, Jesse Potter 12, Dalton Vines 8, Jason Potter 6.

Hancock Co. …….13   18   14     9 – 54

Cloudland………..18   23   22   26 – 89