On Friday the Swain Maroon Lady Devils traveled to Clay county to take on the Hayesville Lady Yellow Jackets. The Lady Devils entered the competition 1-1 while the Lady Yellow Jackets entered the competition 2-1. This game was an important early season matchup for conference positioning. 

In talks pregame head coach Chad McClure said the key to game for Hayesville would be offensive execution. Well the Jackets got off to a shaky start in the first few minutes but settled in. To do that Hayesville went to the post and Brianna Foster did not disappoint scoring 6 of the 12 first quarter points for the Lady Jackets. This gave the Lady Jackets an early 12- 8 lead after the first quarter ended. 

Kynnly McClure skies high to receive a pass from her teammate

The second quarter was back and forth with the Lady Devils fighting back closing in on the Jackets lead. In response Hayesville ratcheted up their defensive pressure fighting back against the Lady Devils forcing them into several turnovers. Then with some timely three point shooting by Lizzy Brusini and Annie Brooks the Lady Jackets were able to end the quarter on a run and extend their lead to 7 making the score 24-17 at the half.

After making adjustments at the half head coach Chad McClure had his Lady Yellow Jackets executing offensively to their highest scoring quarter yet. Netting sixteen points in the third quarter the Lady Yellow Jackets were able to continue building on their lead. They once again started feeding the ball down low to their post players to which several players contributed with a total of ten points in the paint. 

Coming into the 4th quarter Hayesville continued to execute at a high level resulting in an offensive explosion netting twenty 4th quarter points. That combined with stellar defense just put the game out of reach for the Lady Devils who just couldn’t hold on any longer. This allowed the Jackets to finish the game comfortably winning 60 to 42.

The Jackets consistency tonight allowed them to never feel out of control of the game. The Lady Jackets won each quarter of the game and also either matched or increased their scoring each quarter along the way. Senior Jade Patterson was a steadying influence for the young team by scoring in every quarter finishing the game with 11 points. Junior Brianna Foster led the way for the Lady Jackets with a 20 point performance. Foster executed well with all of her points coming in paint on a variety of post moves, quick finishes and putbacks from offensive rebounds.

The Lady Jackets will next take the court at Murphy on Thursday December 19th for a 6:30 tip against the defending conference champions Murphy Lady Bulldogs, this game should be a good barometer for where this young team is at. Remember to tune in all the latest coverage of Lady Yellow Jacket Basketball with FYN sports on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and at https://claync.fetchyournews.com/category/teamfynsports/.