The Collinsville High senior hauled in a long inbounds pass from senior Deante Franklin and turned it into a key three-point play as the Kahoks rallied for a 55-50 boys basketball victory over Hazelwood Central in the first round of the Belleville East Classic.
“Everybody doesn’t know I play football. I play receiver in high school,” Swygeart said. “Deante put it out there and I went and got it. (The pass) was right there. I knew we needed a quick bucket, but I didn’t expect them to foul. I was just thinking about making the bucket.”
The basket and ensuing free throw gave the Kahoks a 51-46 lead with 38.6 seconds to play in the game. They sealed the outcome by making four free throws in the final 18.5 seconds.
It was the sixth consecutive win for Collinsville (14-5), which trailed 43-29 early in the fourth quarter before closing with a 26-7 run in the last seven minutes.
Senior Devin Davis led all scorers with 19 points for the Kahoks. Swygeart finished with 16 points, 14 in the fourth quarter.
“It looked like we were going to be playing (Thursday) night,” Collinsville coach Darin Lee said, referring to the consolation semifinals. “Then all of a sudden it was, ‘Hey, we’re right in this thing.’ We finally made a few shots, and we didn’t turn it over in the second half. The first half, all we did was turn it over.”
Collinsville will play Althoff (4-15) in the semifinals at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Althoff defeated Belleville West 66-58 in Wednesday’s nightcap.
Hazelwood Central (4-7) led 23-19 at halftime, as junior Dominic Fulton had a putback with less than one second to play in the second quarter.
Collinsville committed 14 of its 17 turnovers in the first half and was unable to build on leads of 9-4 in the first quarter and 14-9 in the second quarter.
Hazelwood Central stretched its lead to 39-25 on a 3-pointer by Fulton with one minute left in the third quarter. Senior Terion Lee then dropped in a layup to start the fourth quarter, and the Hawks appeared to be in firm control with their 43-29 advantage.
Instead, the game was tied at 46 less than five minutes later when Franklin hit a 3-pointer out of the left corner. Collinsville grabbed the lead for good at 48-46 on Swygeart’s driving layup with 1:15 left. Hazelwood Central followed with an empty possession, and Collinsville closed the door with the Franklin to Swygeart connection.
“Franklin has a good arm,” Lee said. “We threw the touchdown pass to our football wideout, who can go get it. He went and got it.”
The Hawks were whistled for 23 fouls, compared to 14 on Collinsville. The Kahoks were 21-for-27 from the free-throw line, with Davis going 11-for-13. Hazelwood Central was 6-for-11. Senior Dylan Owens led the Hawks with 12 points.
“We should have made some plays,” Hawks coach Brandon Gilmore said. “We had a couple of turnovers and missed some chippies.”
Swygeart, who also had a big 3-pointer in the fourth quarter, had three fouls in the first 11 minutes of the game and spent most of the first half on the bench.
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