Cloudland is heading back to the ‘Boro.
The Lady ‘Landers outlasted Sunbright for a 38-30 victory in the Class A Sectional in front of a packed Sonny Smith Gymnasium on Saturday night to qualify for the Class A State Tournament.
It is the third time in four seasons that Cloudland has advanced to Murfreesboro.
The Lady ‘Landers are slated to open the BlueCross Basketball Championships on Wednesday against Pickett County. Tipoff is slated for 8:15p ET/7:15 CT.
On Saturday night, it was a heavyweight battle.
After the Lady Tigers hit a jumper to open the game, Makinna Shell and Izabella Christman hit back-to-back shots midway through the quarter to give CHS a 4-2 midway through the quarter.
Makenzie Street drained a 3-pointer, but Sunbright was able to hit a trey at the buzzer to tie the game at 7-7 after a quarter of play.
Shell and Christman opened the second quarter scoring for CHS, and Cloudland was able to take a 15-12 lead midway through the quarter.
That score would hold for the final 3:52 of the half as neither team was able to get on the board.
In the second half, the back-and-forth battle continued.
The teams traded shots through the quarter as Ryan Turbyfill added two 3-pointers for the Blue and Gold, while Shell added a bucket as CHS held a 24-22 lead after three complete quarters.
After Addison Shannon opened the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer to lift Sunbright into the lead, Saharra McKinney answered quickly with a layup.
McKinney and Shell hit shots to push the lead to 30-25 midway through the quarter.
In the final stretch, Cloudland was able to secure the game at the free throw line to punch their ticket to Murfreesboro.
Turbyfill led Cloudland with 14 points, while Shell added eight points. McKinney and Christman had seven and six points, respectively.
Shannon had 12 points to lead Sunbright, while Shannon Freeds had six points.
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