The Men’s SWAC Basketball Tournament tipped off on Tuesday, February 20th. The winner of the tournament is locked into the state playoffs. Each of the higher seeds hosted these games at their respective schools. No.1 seed Green Level handled No.8 seed Apex with a score of 78-49. Jr. Izzy Eatman was 8/8 from the field and had a career-high of 24 points. No. 2 seed Panther Creek annihilated No. 7 seed Green Hope with a score of 102-58. No. 3 seed Holly Springs beat No.6 seed Cary with a score of 61-49. No.4 seed Apex Friendship edged No.5 seed Middle Creek with a score of 63-53.
The semi-finals and championship games were hosted by Green Level. On Wednesday, February 21st, Green Level beat Apex Friendship by 23 in the first game of the night. Jr. Isaac Ericksen had 23 points and 10 rebounds and Jr. Izzy Eatman contributed with 17 points. Jr. Sathvik Pal was 100% from 3 and had 9 points for the Patriots. In the last game of the day, Panther Creek played Holly Springs in an anticipated matchup. So. Josiah Currie and Jr. Will James led the way for Holly Springs. Panther Creek ended up winning the game by 6, with a score of 63-57. Sr. Chris Uwayo led the way with 18 points and Sr. Cam Hunter followed behind with 15 points. This set up Green Level vs. Panther Creek Round 3 on Friday, February 23rd.
The championship game lived up to the hype. Both schools packed out their student sections and created an incredible atmosphere. Ericksen started the game by throwing down an alley-oop on Green Level’s first possession. After that, it was all Panther Creek for the next 3 quarters. Panther Creek was running a full-court man press the whole game, trying to slow down Green Level’s prolific scorers. Uwayo outscored Green Level’s whole team in the first 10 minutes of the game. Panther Creek dominated the offensive glass in the first half with Sr. Greg Ehlinger and Sr. Cam Hunter creating extra possessions for the Catamounts. Panther Creek went into the half with a 29-21 lead. The teams would continue to trade buckets in the 3rd quarter with Uwayo growing his point total to 25 points through 3 quarters. Panther Creek would have a 12-point lead with 6:39 left in the 4th quarter, but the Gators would make that lead quickly dwindle to 6 and bring back life to the student section. The Catamounts were able to hang onto their lead, up by 5 with 1 minute to play. Eatman hit a huge three for the Gators and cut the PC lead to 2 points. Eatman then made a tough contested layup to tie the game up with 11 seconds left. Uwayo took the last shot for Panther Creek but was heavily contested by Ericksen. Ericksen would heave up a prayer from the 3-point line and was closely guarded, some thought the officials should’ve called a foul. The SWAC Championship was headed to overtime. Panther Creek scored the first 4 points of the overtime period. They would be immediately answered with 4 points from Green Level. The Catamounts had the ball with 35 seconds left, they ran the clock all the way down to about 5 seconds left and Uwayo hit a massive 3. Head Coach Shawan Robinson then called a timeout but he was out. This resulted in a technical foul giving Green Level 2 shots and the ball. Ericksen knocked down 2 FTs. With 5 seconds left, So. Trevor Manhertz inbounded to the moving Izzy Eatman. He got downhill and drew 2 defenders onto him. He skipped the ball to the corner for So. Garrett Midkiff for the game-winner. The ball would bounce off the back rim as time expired and Panther Creek had secured the win. Their students stormed the court and their players were going absolutely crazy. Uwayo finished the game with 37 points for Panther Creek.
