Bryson City – Down the stretch of the final day of the Maroon Devil Christmas Classic against host Swain County, Hiwassee Dam girls basketball was just trying to hang on.
The Lady Eagles ended the game with four players having at least four fouls, and had to sweat after opening up a 54-45 lead with about four minutes left. Hiwassee Dam, though, never gave up the lead, outlasting Swain County 64-60 to take fifth place in the tournament.
“We persevered I guess is the word I would use,” head coach David Payne said. “We got out to a lead of about 10 a couple times and then we got into some foul trouble, so we had some other people in situations that they’re not comfortable in. Some of those girls just had to grow up and learn quick.”
The 54-45 lead was down to 54-53 with 2:07 left after a personal 8-0 run by Swain County’s Maddie Spates. She then stole the ensuing inbounds pass, drawing a foul against Olivia McNabb, her fifth. Spates would miss both free throws, and two free throws from both Kiera Taylor and Brooklyn Hyde and a fast break layup from Payton McNabb extended the lead back to seven.
It looked like that would be enough before Kiersten Smith hit a three for Swain, then Sky Taylor accidentally scored on the Lady Devils basket to cut the Hiwassee Dam lead to 63-60 with about 10 seconds remaining. Taylor made up for that mistake, hitting one of two free throws with five seconds left to put the game out of reach.
The Lady Eagles previously lost to Mitchell 62-51 on the first day of the tournament, then beat Andrews 65-27 on the second day. Olivia McNabb and Kiera Taylor both had a team-high 11 points against the Lady Mountaineers, while Taylor led the way with 20 against the Lady Wildcats and 23 against the Lady Devils.
Against Mitchell, Hiwassee Dam was in an early 9-0 hole and never quite got going the rest of the game. The Lady Eagles trimmed the lead down to three in the first quarter, but the Lady Mountaineers opened it back up to 15 early in the second quarter and were never seriously threatened again.
Payne wanted his team to be better at the end of the tournament than the beginning, and while the jury’s still out on that, they learned some valuable lessons. They need to lock in on defense, and several younger players continued to get valuable minutes.
Hyde and Sky Taylor had to contribute down the stretch against Swain County when they’re usually on the bench in those situations. That should help with another of Payne’s goals for this tournament of increasing some players’ confidence.
Hiwassee Dam has two stalwarts it can rely on in Kiera Taylor and Olivia McNabb, with some good pieces surrounding them. Now the goal is getting them all heading in the right direction during the second half of the season.
“It’s a lot of basketball, a lot of plays in a short period of time,” Payne said of the tournament. “We’re going to make some mistakes. Can we learn from them, and if we do, we’re going to be a lot better off in our season going forward.”