(Swain County’s Reese Winchester shoots over Andrews’ Austin Martin, Photo courtesy of Joanna Mcmahan)

 

We are now six weeks into the North Carolina High School basketball season, and we are starting to find out “who’s who” among the top teams in 1A. So far, the Robbinsville boys and the Cherokee girls have proven that they are among the best of the best in the West.

Men’s Top 10 RPI Rankings

RANK	TEAM	RECORD	WP	OWP	OOWP
1	Mountain Heritage	12-1-0	0.923077	0.609224	0.553055	0.686529
2	Robbinsville	10-1-0	0.909091	0.540889	0.506652	0.641079
3	Thomasville	10-2-0	0.833333	0.490515	0.529887	0.605172
4	North Stokes	13-2-0	0.866667	0.492253	0.491445	0.604335
5	Eastern Randolph	12-1-0	0.923077	0.425265	0.510998	0.600329
6	South Stokes	8-4-0	0.666667	0.569138	0.547533	0.591915
7	Bessemer City	9-4-0	0.692308	0.490321	0.573955	0.576007
8	Bishop McGuinness	9-4-0	0.692308	0.486799	0.525608	0.560094
9	Starmount	7-5-0	0.583333	0.585267	0.501252	0.559482
10	Corvian Community	6-4-0	0.600000	0.545883	0.534139	0.558595

Other Notable Teams: Murphy #12, Andrews #17, Hayesville #18, Cherokee #21, Swain #32, Highlands #37, Hiwassee Dam #39

How ’bout those Black Knights? They currently sit alone atop the Smoky Mountain Conference with a 5-0 record in SMC play and they’re showing no signs of slowing down. The Knights only loss this year came in December against 3A Smoky Mountain on the road, a team they had already beaten earlier this season in overtime. Speaking of overtime, the Knights are no stranger to extra minutes as they’ve already seen OT action in 4 of their 11 games this year. For a team with only 4 Seniors, the Knights have been very impressive in those do-or-die moments late in the game.

Women’s Top 10 RPI Rankings

RANK	TEAM	RECORD	WP	OWP	OOWP
1	Bishop McGuinness	10-1-0	0.909091	0.650008	0.559483	0.700575
2	Mountain Heritage	12-2-0	0.857143	0.563770	0.581718	0.657166
3	Cherokee	11-3-0	0.785714	0.557202	0.523057	0.615512
4	Rosman	11-3-0	0.785714	0.549307	0.516281	0.610321
5	Albemarle	9-3-0	0.750000	0.556257	0.520570	0.603674
6	North Rowan	8-3-0	0.727273	0.545107	0.513892	0.590392
7	East Wilkes	8-3-0	0.727273	0.518369	0.528456	0.584066
8	Bessemer City	9-4-0	0.692308	0.536383	0.536609	0.583228
9	Draughn	9-4-0	0.692308	0.484621	0.535548	0.562205
10	Thomas Jefferson	8-4-0	0.666667	0.514850	0.518037	0.561351
11	Robbinsville	8-2-0	0.800000	0.413287	0.500024	0.555322

Other Notable Teams: Highlands #15, Swain County #23, Hayesville #27, Hiwassee Dam #29, Murphy #31, Andrews #41

 

The biggest fumble of the season was our FYNSports Preseason SMC Basketball rankings having Cherokee girls at number 3 in the conference. They are miles ahead of everyone else, and they should continue to be that way for the next several years as they are loaded with youth. The Lady Braves might be 11-3- but those three losses are to some really good teams, including a one point loss at the beginning of the season to #1 ranked Bishop McGuinness.

 

 

The top 32 teams in the West and the top 32 teams in the East will make the 2022-2023 NCHSAA Playoffs, and as it stands right now all of our local area 1A teams have a chance to make it in if they can make a run here at the end of the year. As it sits right now- Swain, Highlands, and Hiwassee Dam boys are on the bubble, as well as Hiwassee Dam, Murphy, and Andrews girls. Those aforementioned teams are going to have to play some good basketball down the stretch in order to secure a playoff berth.

Stay tuned to TeamFYNSports as we will provide more updates as the season progresses.