BY DANNY BLEVINS

STAR CORRESPONDENT

Cloudland’s head basketball coach Gary Harrison could only sit in his seat and smile as his team dominated the Avery County Vikings on Tuesday night.

His philosophy of the game had finally gotten through to his boys and they were playing the game the way he had hoped they would play it.

Coach Harrison has instilled in his team the importance of quickness and aggressiveness on both offense and defense and the team showed their coach and the large crowd at Sonny Smith Gymnasium in Roan Mountain that they had learned well.

Cloudland’s aggressiveness could be seen from the moment the ball was tipped. Avery County could keep up with them in speed and scoring for a few minutes of the first quarter but it was obvious even in the first quarter that this was going to be a Cloudland rout.

For a few minutes in the first quarter, the Vikings were able to match the Landers bucket for bucket and even took the lead at 6-5 at one point. Cloudland kept the pressure on Avery County, however, and when the first quarter ended, the Landers had a ten-point lead and the score was 16-6.

Avery County mounted a comeback during the second quarter and seemed to have found a way to get through Cloudland’s pressure defense. Cloudland would not let up, however, and by the half, the Landers had taken a 12-point lead and the score was 31-19.

Cloudland made some key adjustments during the half because they came out of the locker room like men on a mission. Their mission was to not allow the Vikings to score one more point. They almost succeeded.

The Highlanders only allowed the Vikings to score five points in the third period and made almost every trip down the court an offensive nightmare for the Vikings.

Meanwhile, the ‘Lander’s offense was clicking on all cylinders and stretched their lead to 16 points as the quarter closed. With the score 40-24, the ‘Landers knew it was time to finish the game on a high note.

The Landers only allowed the Vikings to score six points during the fourth quarter as they continued finding the bucket. By the end of the game, Cloudland’s offense had scored 56 points and had given the ‘Landers a 26-point win.

Cloudland was led in scoring by Bentley Gilbert who had 13 points. He was closely followed by Hayden Shell and Elijah Blair who had 12 points each and Conner Birchfield who scored 10 points.

Other Landers getting on the scoreboard were Jed Childress who scored four points, Hunter Shell chipped in three and Hunter Blair scored two points on the night.

Silas Barinowski and Troy Hoilman led Avery County in scoring with 12 points each. Jesse Jones, David McCollum and Jonas Bowman also scored for Avery County as they each had two points during the game.

The Landers will play again on Friday night as they travel to Kingsport to play the Sullivan North Raiders in the first conference game of the year.