Queen of the county: Karson Swogger
Swogger breaks Blair scoring record in win over Williamsburg
Karson Swogger is now the undisputed scoring queen of Blair County.
January 27, 2017
Considering Karson Swogger has played over 1,000 basketball games in her life, it must’ve been something special for her to be nervous before her game Thursday night in the Bellwood-Antis gymnasium.
Karson was approaching a major scoring record, just 27 points away from becoming the top scorer ever in Blair County.
“I was a little more nervous than normal, but I just had to stay focused,” said Karson.
The crowd erupted in the third quarter when Karson sank her record breaking bucket – on a three-pointer from the wing off a feed from Riley D’Angelo – to become the all-time leading scorer in Blair County. She broke a 10-year old record that was set in 2007 by Lacey Claar, who went to another ICC school, Claysburg-Kimmel, and scored 2,187 points.
Coming into the new week Karson had tallied 2,132 points, and with an average of almost 28 points per game the record looked ready to fall within a couple of games.
On Monday night in the ladies’ 80-42 blowout over Claysburg-Kimmel, Swogger racked up 29 points.
Thursday night Karson had 19 by halftime. The 78-24 domination over Willamsburg led Karson to 27 points on the dot, enough to overtake the record by a single point.
“I was focused on staying within the offense. My teammates would find me, and then it was my part to make the shots,” said Swogger, “Fortunately it all came together. It was a great night.”
Swogger last week became Bellwood-Antis all-time leading scorer across the board, male or female, and a couple weeks before that swished her 2000th point. But being the best scorer to ever come through Blair County is the biggest of them all.
Swogger’s senior season has been a very exciting one, with big milestones every night she steps on the court.
Teammate Alanna Leidig thinks it’s been amazing to play alongside such a talented player. put her only 27 away from a memorable night.
“Karson is amazing on and off the court. It was awesome to see and a great accomplishment for her. I was so happy when I saw the ball go through the net and the smile on her face,” said Leidig.
As a freshman Karson had averaged 15.5 points per game and tallied 434 points on the year. As a sophmore she raised the bar a little higher, averaging 19.4 points per game, and 562 points on the season.
I feel blessed to be mentioned in the same breath as some of the best players to ever play in Blair County.
— Karson Swogger
During her junior campaign Karson picked up the average to 28.9 points per game, scoring 722 points on the year, and broke numerous school records, including most points in a single game, which stands at 42, and most points scored in a season.
For her final year of high school basketball she gave a prelude to her successful season by committing to attend Saint Francis University on a full scholarship.
Thus far in Swogger’s senior season she is averaging 27.6 points per game and counted 470 points through 17 games.
After all of the success, Karson has been humble and thankful throughout the entire journey. She believes that hard work and dedication will take you a very long way.
“I feel blessed to be mentioned in the same breath as some of the best players to ever play in Blair County. It shows what can be accomplished with hard work and dedication along with great teammates and coaches,” Swogger concluded.
Coach Jim Swaney thinks very highly of Karson.
“She is a tireless worker who wants to be good as she can be. She understands to be a great player at this game you have to put in more time than just in the season,” he said. “Karson has worked hard to become as quick and strong as she can be as well good at her shot and if I played a very small part in that then I feel very blessed.”
