Region 1-A Girls Semifinal Cloudland 47    Cosby 26 Lady ‘Landers ground Lady Eagles earning a shot at regional championship

Published 12:08 am Wednesday, March 4, 2020

By Ivan Sanders

BY IVAN SANDERS
STAR SPORTS EDITOR
ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com     
MORRISTOWN – Cosby managed to play with the Cloudland Lady Highlanders for one quarter on Monday evening at Walters State Community College but after that, the Lady Highlanders had the Lady Eagles battery packs running on a low charge as Coach Matt Birchfield’s squad ran away to a 47-26 victory.
The win earned the Lady Highlanders their fourth game of the season against the North Greene Lady Huskies who dispatched Unaka earlier in the evening for the Region 1-A championship.
And with both teams being from District 1-A, the game has been moved to tonight at Daniel Boone High School in Gray at 7 pm.
Cosby worked to a 9-8 lead after one but Cloudland regrouped quickly in the second period to take a 22-14 lead into the locker room at intermission.
Jasmine Birchfield scored nine points in the first half to help Cloudland build the halftime lead. She got help from Mandy Benfield who scored four in the half.
Three Lady ‘Landers had a trey in the opening 16 minutes including Heaven Carraway, Kenzie Birchfield, and Gracie Freeman to help push the ladies from Roan Mountain out front.
It was all Lady Highlanders in the second half as Cloudland handily outscored the Lady Eagles 25-12 in the final 16 minutes to seal the win and give the Lady Highlanders not only a shot at the regional championship but a sectional game pending the outcome of the finals on Wednesday.
Jasmine Birchfield led the Lady Highlanders in scoring hitting for 13 points in the contest while Kenzie Birchfield drained four treys for 12 points in the game.
Benfield finished with eight points with Freeman adding seven points. Caraway (3), Leah Birchfield (2), and Kaylen Fields (2) closed out the scoring for Cloudland.
Leia Groat scored eight points to pace the Lady Eagles in a losing cause. Gracie Myers added six points.
The difference in the game came down to the energy that Cloudland played with throughout as after the first quarter, Cosby appeared to be tired. The Lady ‘Landers took advantage of that to take control.
“I thought we had enough depth to get enough kids off the bench to help us move the ball and we chased them up and down the floor,” said skipper Matt Birchfield after the contest. “Our transition game was good tonight and I thought that was a big difference in the game to get those runs out on the offensive end.
“I kept telling our girls that we didn’t shoot well early and that one shot was going to fall every now and then and that we needed to keep playing and relax and once we did and a few started to drop we picked it up on the defensive end.
Birchfield also said it was great to secure the sectional game but the main thing now is taking care of business against North Greene to stay at home for the sectional.
“It would be great to play at home in a substate game. You always want to get a substate game but you do want to play at home,” Birchfield stated.
The winner of the Cloudland-North Greene contest will get the loser of the Oneida and Wartburg Central contest while the loser would go on the road to the winner of that contest.

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