Hiwassee Dam – After a first half in which it couldn’t buy a bucket, Hiwassee Dam boys basketball (1-2 overall) gave the crowd at The Nest something to cheer about in the second half against Swain County during Homecoming on Friday night.
The Eagles trailed by 13 points at halftime, and continued to get closer and closer to the Maroon Devils. Anticipation grew as the game got tighter and Hiwassee Dam cut the Swain County lead to two with about two minutes remaining. But the Eagles couldn’t finish the job, falling to the Maroon Devils 63-58.
“It looked like in the second quarter we were playing a lot of me ball instead of team ball,” assistant coach Leon Green said. “We made a few adjustments at halftime, come back out and at the end we had a chance to win it. From the hole we dug in the first half, that was a good comeback.”
Hiwassee Dam flustered Swain County early in the game, getting some easy points off turnovers. But once the Maroon Devils settled in, they looked ready to run away with the game.
After a jumper by the Eagles Preston Hyde for two of his team-high 19 points tied the game at 12 with about one minute left in the first quarter, Swain County (1-1) went on a 14-0 that spanned just over six minutes. Hiwassee Dam didn’t hit another shot from the field until a 3-pointer by Kyle Taylor with 1:43 left in the second quarter.
In that time, the Maroon Devils used their size and athleticism to bully the Eagles, who couldn’t get good looks. Post players Dawson Headley and Jonah Hamby had shots swatted away and easily contested, while Hyde, Clay Davis and Leo Hickson couldn’t get good shots off the dribble.
Swain County pushed the tempo when possible and were aggressive at the rim, taking full advantage of going into the double bonus less than a minute into the second quarter. Hiwassee Dam never contained 6-foot-4 junior Josiah Glaspie, who finished with a game-high 22 points.
But things changed in the second half. The Maroon Devils led 34-21 at halftime before a 9-2 run by the Eagles cut the lead to six.
That started a cat-and-mouse game between the two teams, as Hiwassee Dam would inch closer before Swain County would score and establish some breathing room. The Eagles never went on more than a 5-0 run the rest of the way, as they couldn’t get enough stops.
Time and time again, one more stop could’ve put more pressure on Swain County than was there down the stretch. Sometimes it was a quick bucket in transition, while other times it was losing players with communication breakdowns on defense.
A Hamby layup cut the lead to 57-55, only for Reese Winchester to hit a tough layup. Hyde’s three cut the lead to 61-58 with 12.6 seconds left, but Joshua Collins hit two free throws with 10.6 seconds left to ice the game.
Though the effort was there in the second half, Green thinks the game could’ve turned out different if Hiwassee Dam played more consistently as a team, which it hasn’t as much as the coaching staff would like so far. That means being more locked in on defense, and finding the balance on offense of players creating on their own and working within the system to find good shots.
“That’s what we gotta do,” Green said. “We gotta play team defense, more taking on defense and more sharing the ball on offense.”