Bryson City – Like every team, Andrews girls basketball head coach Eric Duong hopes his team is playing its best basketball at season’s end.
In the Big Smoky Mountain Conference, which has three of the top seven teams 1A West teams in the state’s RPI rankings, that can be hard to measure.
The Lady Wildcats took their lumps all season, including a 77-28 loss to No. 3 seed Cherokee in the first round of the conference tournament Saturday. Andrews finishes the year 2-22 overall and 0-10 in the conference. Before losing to Cherokee, they beat Nantahala 80-36 on Feb. 7, then lost to Murphy 64-9 the next day.
“This is the toughest conference in the state,” Duong said. “Every night, you’re facing a top-tier team in the state. So it’s good in one way because you’re playing the best competition, but also you can’t take a night off or you’ll get thumped.”
As was common in most of Andrews’ conference games this year, the Lady Braves (15-6, 7-3) were just the better team. Cherokee was hot early, jumping out to a 21-0 lead about halfway through the first quarter. It put the Lady Wildcats in a running clock in the first minute of the third quarter, and it would have been earlier if not for some liberal substituting.
It was another game that shows just how far Andrews has to go to compete with the top teams in the conference. This year’s top three teams – Murphy, Robbinsville and Cherokee – all can make deep playoff runs with the right draw, and have been a threat to do that for several years.
Those teams also play together throughout the summer and out of season to improve. Andrews isn’t quite on that level.
Still, Duong is optimistic about the future for the Lady Wildcats. He thinks they have some middle schoolers who can help elevate the program as long as they stay committed.
Andrews loses three seniors, notably leading scorer Emily Mealer, though most of its rotation this year was underclassmen. But for that to happen, the players need to continue to work in the offseason – not when practice starts up again in November.
“Andrews has gotten some promising youth coming if they stick with it, and continue playing and improving as well as staying around,” Duong said. “Andrews can absolutely compete in the upcoming years if we play our cards right.”