Bryson City – As they moved through the Maroon Devil Christmas Classic, the Andrews boys basketball team’s opponents leveled up in each of their three games.
First, the Wildcats breezed past Tuscola, 71-47. The next night against Mitchell in the semifinals, Andrews got out to a 33-16 lead at halftime before going ice cold in the second half and holding on for a 43-41 win. North Stokes in the championship was too much to overcome, as the Vikings got off to a hot start and controlled the game the entire way for a 74-50 win.
“It’s always good when you’re playing the last game of the night, last game of the week for a championship,” Andrews head coach Matt Maennle said. “We just came up short. Cut it to 10 a few times and had a chance to cut it to single digits. Just couldn’t do it and that’s how it works some nights.”
Despite not having a player taller than 6 feet, 3 inches and not being the most impressive-looking team, North Stokes got after Andrews from the beginning. The Vikings push the tempo and get out in transition, and on defense played a 1-2-2 trap that extended all the way to half court.
Andrews was slow to adjust, allowing multiple fast-break opportunities while settling for tough shots on offense. The result was a 19-5 first-quarter lead that the Wildcats could never quite dig out of against the No. 4 1A West team in the state, according to MaxPreps.
“That’s a well-coached team,” Maennle said. They played hard, they’re smart. They had a lot of stuff that they ran well.”
Junior Cam Rattler carried Andrews in the first half, scoring 24 of the Wildcats’ 28 points over the first two quarters. He would finish with 28.
With Rattler carrying Andrews, North Stokes continued to have an answer. Junior Will Greer was solid down low with 21 points, while Samuel Collins had 15 and Michael Mabe added 14.
A 10-0 run by the Wildcats in the first quarter cut North Stokes’ lead to 19-15, but two free throws from Greer and then a layup by Cole Hicks in the final 30 seconds pushed the lead back to eight. A 3-pointer by Rattler trimmed the lead to five during the second quarter, but the Vikings once again pushed back and led 37-28 at halftime.
Collins drilled a 3-pointer to open the second half that extended North Stokes’ lead to 12, and the Vikings led by double digits the rest of the night. Andrews cut it to 10 twice in the third quarter and again in the fourth quarter, but couldn’t go on an extended run.
After a hot 6-0 start to the year, the Wildcats hit some speed bumps recently due to better competition and not enough consistent scorers. Rattler has scored in double figures in all but two games this season, including six straight with 13 or more.
The last five games, which Andrews has gone 2-3, Rattler and Bateman have scored 58 percent of Andrews points. The only other player to score more than 10 points in a game over the last five games is sophomore
Ty Clark.
Finding more consistent scoring is what Maennle sees as the main thing to fix heading into 2023.