Advance in first round of playoffs
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Cooper Hyatt darts back and forth to avert a Cherryville player
Hannah Styles
hstyles@thesmokymountaintimes.com
On Friday, the Swain County Maroon Devils basketball team played the Hayesville Yellow Jackets in the final round of the SMC tournament, held this year at Swain High School. Swain made it all the way through, defeating everyone in the conference, except for the Yellow Jackets, losing 77-54.
In the first half, things were looking well matched despite the high tension coming out of the last game with Hayesville a few weeks back. The team looked determined and collected as they kept the score close until halftime. After the half, things started to go downhill for the Devils, and the Yellow Jackets pushed ahead 23 points to win the game.
Devils vs. Cherryville
On Tuesday, Swain competed in the first round of the state playoffs at home against the Cherryville Ironmen, where the Devils took advantage of being cheered on by their fans at home.
Cooper Hyatt, Donnavin Groenewold, Isaiah Collins, Carter Kirkland, Cameron Blankenship, and Josh Collins were all on fire! With five minutes left in the first quarter, Swain was ahead by six, but Cherryville was fighting back. That set the pace for the entire game, with Swain just ahead and Cherryville scraping to catch up, but the Devils always kept them just out of reach.
With five minutes left in the second quarter, Swain was in the lead 31-25 and then a scoring montage occurred.
With 3:49 remaining in the second, the score was 36-30 in favor of Swain, with 3:03 left it was 38-35, and with 2:26 left Swain was up 39-37, with back and forth scoring from both teams. With only seven seconds left before the half, Cameron Blankenship sunk a three-point buzzer beater leading the Devils into halftime with 55-41.
After the break, the Maroon Devils continued their success as tempers flared and tensions rose. Swain had 68-55 with a minute and a half left in the third. In the final quarter, Groenewold had an incredible steal followed by a two point basket with a little over five minutes left. With four minutes left in the game the Devils were up an impressive 20 points. In the last few seconds, Gavin Lanning passed to Dylan Cochran as he put a lay-up into the basket for the 100th point as the fans and student section went wild.
Swain advanced to the second round of the playoffs with a 100-78 defeat against Cherryville.
The next game date and location is to be determined.