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Maroon Devil Joshua Collins drives the ball up the court.
Larry Griffin
lgriffin@thesmokymountaintimes.com
Swain County’s Maroon Devils varsity basketball team beat the Andrews Wildcats in a tight 51-48 match on Friday, Feb. 10 in the first round of the SMC Basketball Tournament.
The Maroon Devils also played the Murphy Bulldogs on Tuesday night before press time.
Swain’s head coach Scotty McMahan said the game against Andrews was a “very, very good environment.”
Swain played hard, he said, and while the second quarter against Andrews was rough, the Maroon Devils made some plays at the end of the game that cinched them the win.
One of the improvements was more proficient free throws, McMahan said.
“We struggled with free throws this year,” he said. “But we hit some at the end of this game that sealed the deal.”
The team continues to see improvements.
McMahan said he still thought the team had more potential to unlock.
“I still don’t think we’ve played our best. We can improve,” he said.
Ahead of the Tuesday, Feb. 14 game against Murphy, he said the team was ready.
“We’re 0-2 to them this year,” he said.