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Senior Amaya Hicks takes a foul shot at the game against North Stokes during Swain’s Christmas tournament last week. -
Maroon Devil Josh Collins goes up for a basket, battling it out with a North Stokes Viking during last week’s basketball tournament.
Hannah Styles
hstyles@thesmokymountaintimes.com
Swain’s annual Christmas basketball tournament took place last week at Swain County High School with schools attending from across Western North Carolina to compete.
The match up started on Wednesday, Dec. 28 and continued until Friday, Dec. 30.
Lady Devils
The Swain varsity girls basketball team kicked off the tournament for the Devils, playing on Wednesday night before the boys game. The Lady Devils faced the Owen Warhorses from Black Mountain, where they fell 65-58 but moved on to play another game on the second day of the tournament.
On Thursday, Swain’s girls team competed against the North Stokes Vikings for a scrappy match up. In the first quarter, back-to-back scoring from both teams brought the score to 9-7 in the first, with Swain leading by two points. In the second, Swain outscored the Vikings by two points in the quarter bringing the score into halftime 21-17.
After the half, the Lady Devils added 19 more points to the Vikings close behind 17 but the Devils remained in the lead 40-34. The Lady Devils finished the win by adding 20 more points to the scoreboard in the final quarter, to North Stokes’ 17. Swain was the winner by nearly 10 points with 60-51.
During the third round of the tournament on Friday, the Lady Devils took on Hiwassee Dam to determine who would place 5th in the conference. After a hard fought game with the Lady Devils making a significant comeback, they fell four points to the Eagles with a final score of 64-60. The Lady Devils placed 6th in the tournament.
Maroon Devils
On Wednesday, Swain varsity boys basketball team also began with a game against the Owen Warhorses, where they ultimately won the game by almost 20 points, 67-49. The next day the Maroon Devils advanced in the tournament to play North Stokes.
Swain jumped ahead four points in the beginning of the game, but with about four minutes left in the quarter, North Stokes tied the game at 8-8, eventually taking the lead.
The Maroon Devils finished the 1st quarter behind 21-16. In the second quarter, North Stokes kept their lead throughout with Swain fighting to come back.
With 2:50 left before the half the score was 36-30 with Swain still a few points short but that didn’t stop them from continuing their comeback. Unfortunately, North Stokes wasn’t giving up either. The game went into the half with Swain trailing 42-33.
In the third, the Vikings continued to advance their score as Swain also added baskets and with a little over two minutes left in the third, the score was 54-42.
In the final, Swain continued fighting to come back but ultimately fell 78-55.
The team moved on to play Mitchell on Friday night where they won 67-44, gaining the spot for 3rd in the tournament.