Lady Highlanders sprint past Twin Springs, VA
Published 12:44 am Saturday, December 18, 2021
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Lady 'Lander Saharra McKinney makes a dandy of a pass on the run to an open teammate.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Cloudland's Ella Benfield splits a pair of Twin Springs defenders on her way to a Cloudland score.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Izabella Christman ducks under a Lady Titan defender before taking the ball up and in for a deuce.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Taylor Hicks of the Lady 'Landers takes the basketball straight to the rim for two points.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Cloudland's Kendall Birchfield works the ball into the front court.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Ryan Turbyfill eyes the basket as she prepares to fire up a free throw.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Lady 'Lander Karah Fields pulls up for a short jumper just inside the free throw line.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Cloudland's Saharra McKinney pushes the basketball up the floor.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Cloudland's Layken Blair eyes the basket as she gets ready to put up a shot against Twin Springs, VA.
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BY IVAN SANDERS
STAR SPORTS EDITOR
ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com
ROAN MOUNTAIN – Friday evening’s girls’ basketball game between Cloudland and Twin Springs, VA had a large imprint of Coach Matt Birchfield’s thumbprint on it from start to finish.
With a stiff pressure defense being applied, the Lady ‘Landers turned numerous turnovers into easy buckets in taking an easy 59-18 win over the visitors from Scott County, VA.
The first quarter set the tone for Cloudland as the Lady ‘Landers jumped out to a 21-5 lead at the first stoppage.
Ella Benfield was a force to be reckoned with on the inside as she touched the nets for eight first-quarter points to lead the home team. Karah Fields was just behind Benfield with seven points including a trey.
Izabella Christman was using her strength inside to contribute four points while Saharra McKinney added a deuce as well.
Kaylee Keith buried a trey for the Lady Titans and Chloe Gilmer added a pair of free throws to make up Twin Springs total in the quarter.
The second quarter was played a little tighter as Cloudland held the slight edge in the quarter, 10-6, to push the lead to 31-11 at intermission.
Christman chalked up six more points to add to her scoring ledger giving her 10 for the first half. Ryan Turbyfill and Taylor Hicks scored two points each to account for the Lady Highlanders’ 10 points in the period.
Ryleigh Gillenwater dropped a three-ball and Emma Dirgus collected a field goal for the Lady Titans. Gilmer also added 1-of-2 from the free throw line to make up the visitor’s score at the break.
Coming out of the intermission, the Lady ‘Landers picked back up where they left off in the first quarter as they dumped 15 more points onto their side of the board while Twin Springs was held to only five.
Benfield returned to her open quarter form as she took the ball straight to the trim to record 10 points in the quarter. Fields added another trey while Christman totaled two more.
With the game basically wrapped up, the fourth quarter was cleanup time for both teams as Cloudland closed out the game on a 13-2 run to earn the final margin of victory.
Christman and Benfield finished with an identical scoring of 18 points for the contest to claim game-high honors. Fields also reached double figures with 10 for the game.
Gilmer led the Lady Titans with six points in the game.
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Girls
Cloudland, 59-18
Twin Springs (18)
Chloe Gilmer 6, Kaylee Keith 3, Ryleigh Gillenwater 5, Emma Dirgus 4.
Cloudland (59)
Taylor Hicks 5, Kendall Birchfield 2, Ella Benfield 18, Layken Blair 2, Saharra McKinney 2, Ryan Turbyfill 2, Izabella Christman 18, Karah Fields 10.
Twin Springs …. 5 6 5 2 – 18
Cloudland……… 21 10 15 13 – 59
3-Pt Goals: Twin Springs 3 (Keith, Gillenwater, Gilmer). Cloudland 3 (Hicks, Fields 2).
