Cherokee – The Big Smoky Mountain Conference Tournament was not kind to the Cherokee County teams.
All four of the Andrews team fell on the first night of the tournament. The Lady Cats (10-14) fell to Swain (12-14) 51-40 in the first game of the tournament. The Lady Cats finished fifth in the conference with a 3-7 record.
The Andrews boys (18-7) faced a similar fate, as the Wildcats fell to Murphy 59-41. The boys team also finished fifth in the conference with a 5-5 conference record. Both Wildcats junior varsity teams didn’t fare any better, as both the boys and the girls fell to Hayesville.
The Murphy girls (2-21) fell in the first round to Robbinsville (16-8) 67-52. The Lady Bulldogs finished sixth in the conference with a 0-11 record.
The Murphy (16-9) boys team started out strong with a big win over Andrews (19-7). The Wildcats won both regular-season games against Murphy, but the Dogs took this one 59-41. The Bulldogs fell in the second round to Cherokee (15-8) by a score of 75-70. The JV boys had a bye in the first round but fell to Swain in the second.
The Murphy JV girls first took down Robbinsville, then defeated Cherokee to win the JV girls championship. The JV girls finished the season 20-1, with their only loss coming to Hayesville by one1 point. Coach Alysha Floyd had a team of eight freshman, and many had to see limited playing time because they also played on the varsity squad.
Cherokee and Hayesville faced each other in both the girls and boys championship games. Hayesville girls fell to the Lady Braves 82-27, while the Hayesville boys fell to the Braves 69-65.
The Hayesville boys had not won a conference game heading into the tournament. However, the team defeated Robbinsville 64-59 in the first round and Swain 59-47 in the second round before falling to Cherokee in the championship game.
On the girls side, Cherokee, Andrews, Swain, Hayesville and Robbinsville
earned spots in the 1A state playoffs. For the boys, Hayesville, Andrews, Cherokee, Murphy, Swain and Robbinsville all
earned spots in the playoffs. All the teams, except Hayesville, will host their first-round games.
If Murphy and Cherokee both win first-round games, they will face each other for a fourth time in Cherokee.