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Maroon Devil senior Josiah Glaspie makes a jump at the game against North Buncombe on Thursday, Dec. 28. -
Lady Devil sophomore Jayden Smiley gets ready to shoot in the basketball game Dec. 28, which the Lady Devils easily won 70-20 over the Lady Black Hawks.
Larry Griffin
lgriffin@thesmokymountaintimes.com
The Lady Devils defeated the North Buncombe Lady Black Hawks with ease in the second day of the Christmas Classic played at home on Thursday, Dec. 28.
As they got up more than 40 points over their opponents, so the clock kept running and the game was a fast and frenetic experience.
The Lady Devils made quick, well-planned throws and kept the scoring coming fast, the momentum never slowing and the players seeming to have found a new level of teamwork after working together all season.
While the Lady Black Hawks tried gamely to keep up, the Lady Devils didn’t let them have an inch, and Swain was up 70-20 at the game’s end.
Then the Maroon Devils came up against the Black Hawks in what ended up a 68-62 loss for Swain.
It was a tense struggle of a game. The Devils scored first, but the Black Hawks were right behind them. The teams were roughly evenly matched and the Black Hawks’ defense was able to keep the Devils from scoring as much as they could. Every time the Devils scored the Black Hawks were close behind, and the Black Hawks eventually outpaced the Devils – the score was 37-33 at half time.
The game was full of orchestrated plays and throws made from all over the court. The teams were at each other’s throats and turnovers happened on a dime, the game shifting sometimes within seconds.
The score was often almost even and one shot from either side shifted the balance, so the score veered between both teams for much of the game.
By the third quarter, the Devils were lagging behind. The Black Hawks were up by almost 10 points throughout the quarter even as the Devils fought gamely to keep up.
There were tangled struggles for the ball as both teams fiercely fought to keep it on their side. The tension in the game had the audience on the edge of their seats, and when the Devils stole the ball there was a roar of approval from their side of the stadium.
The fourth quarter saw the Devils ramping up their energy and they managed to get things tied for a while through some well-placed shots by Josiah Glaspie and some stronger, wilder throws by many team members.
They got the score to 57-55 with the Black Hawks still in the lead, but then the Devils scored again and it was 57-57 with just four minutes left to go.
The Black Hawks came back and scored more, though, getting up to 63 points. With less than a minute left in the game, the Devils got the ball in and the score was 63-62 in favor of the Black Hawks. With 20 seconds left, the Black Hawks were able to score a few more times, finishing 68-62.
The Christmas Classic went on from Wednesday, Dec. 27 through Friday, Dec. 29.
On Wednesday, the Lady Devils fell 63-47 against the Mitchell Lady Mountaineers, and on Friday they lost 42-28 against the Madison Lady Patriots.
Meanwhile, the Maroon Devils beat Mitchell 82-68 and then also toppled Madison 70-44.
The Maroon Devils and Lady Devils both played a home game the Pisgah Bears on Wednesday, Jan. 3 after press time.
Their next game is against the Cherokee Braves at home in a SMC conference match on Friday, Jan. 5.