The Sam Moir Christmas Classic notebook ...
Davie’s girls are in the finals, and a big reason is sophomore point guard Brittany Walker, who has had two impressive tournament performances in wins over South Rowan and West Rowan.
Walker went 13-for-14 at the foul line and scored 16 points as Davie beat West 53-48 in Thursday’s semifinals. She’s had 16 assists in two nights with superb passes.
“She’s a smart player,” said West coach Angie Waddell. “She does about everything under control. I was very impressed with her. She has a good future ahead of her. She’s one of the best sophomores I’ve seen.”
“She got frustrated about missing some shots,” said Davie coach Carol Cozart. “I said, ‘Brittany, you are a sophomore who has played like a senior all year long. You’re keeping your composure. You have confidence, and the kids have confidence in you. You’ve got to keep that senior confidence in you and you’re going to play like a senior for three years.’”
Walker is following in the footsteps of some great Davie guards in the legendary Bill Peeler era — Jill Amos, Angie Browder and Naomi Minwalla. Browder, now Angie Slabach, is another former Davie coach.
“Brittany Walker is good buddies with Angie Browder,” said Cozart. “She’s kind of gone into retirement with her family, but she keeps in contact with us. Emily Morton babysits for her kids sometimes. She’s very much in awareness of our team.”
Slabach played for Peeler, who was in attendance last night, and she was a member of two tournament championship teams in 1981 and 1983, when she was Most Valuable Player. Slabach also coached Davie to the title in 1993.
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WHERE’SKANNAPOLIS? You always see plenty of Kannapolis faithful watching the Moir Classic in Goodman Gymnasium. But girls coach Doug Wilson would love to have his team involved.
But tournament director Dennis Davidson doesn’t know if it will ever happen, mainly because the existing teams may not want to expand from a 6-team tournament to an 8-team tournament.
“Idon’t know if the six would want to split the money two more ways,” Davidson said.
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NEWSEATS:A.L. Brown’s Bullock Gym, which hosts the SPC tournament and a sectional each year, has been refurbished during the Christmas holidays.
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CALLONCHRIS:North’s guard Chris Phillips had the task of stopping Justin Miller, East’s sharpshooter and one of the county’s leading scorers at 20.8. With Phillips blanketing him, he was 2-for-15 and dropped to 19.4.
“Chris is probably our best defensive player,” North coach Kelly Everhart said.
“We tried to contain them outside,” said Phillips. “Once they hit one, they can keep on hitting them.”
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THINGSARELOOKINGUP:Salisbury’s Ke-Ke Chunn, No. 2 girls scorer in the county, said she didn’t converse with No. 1 scorer Brittney Gaddy of South when their teams played in the noon game on Thursday.
“I talked to No. 22 (Katie Willett) some,” said the 5-foot-7 Chunn. “But Gaddy (6-1) and me, we aren’t exactly on the same eye level, you know. I do respect Gaddy as a player very much. And I hope she respects me.”
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ENOUGH’SENOUGH:Salisbury girls coach Jennifer Shoaf said she and South coach James Greene are getting tired of playing in the noon consolation game.
“Yeah,” said Shoaf. “It’s getting old. James and I talked about that. It’s always like it’s South and Salisbury for fifth and sixth.”
Salisbury’s last first-round win in the Moir event was in 1996-97, Shoaf’s first year as head coach. That year, the Hornets beat North 38-37.
Salisbury and South also met in last season’s noon consolation. The Hornets won that one 42-40.
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RILEDUP:Like everyone else, South paid a lot of defensive attention to Salisbury’s best shooter — Jenny Reilly. Reilly was held to seven points for the second straight day.
South even played a little box-and-one on Reilly early in the game.
“That blew her mind,” said Shoaf.
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LARRY, MOEANDGURLEY: As you’ve read earlier, West coach Mike Gurley has downplayed the importance of this tournament in recent years, but is really pumping it to his team this season.
His reasons make sense. His past crews were veteran-laden teams, whose eyes were focused on end-of-the-year prizes. But his current crew is young and could really use a Moir title as a confidence-builder.
Maybe that’s why Gurley was about twice as animated as his usual animated self during Thursday’s impressive 77-65 win over Davie.
“Coach usually doesn’t go crazy until the fourth quarter,” said Falcon hero Phillip Williams. “But tonight, he was going crazy in the first quarter. And the second and the third. It was fun. You could hear him above the crowd and there were a lot of people in the crowd.”
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GOODNEWS: Positive news for West fans. Guard Terris Sifford may be back as early as mid-January. Gurley is already salivating at the possibility of having three defensive stoppers in Horatio Everhart, Junior Hairston and Sifford.
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COACHING KIN: Two of the coaches in tonight’s championship games have contrasting styles but a family connection.
West’s Gurley, the most vocal coach in the area, and North Rowan girls coach Gary Atwell, a quiet man on the sidelines, are kin by marriage.
“His aunt is married to my great uncle,” explained Atwell.
Gurley’s Falcons take on North Rowan in the boys championship game at 7:30, while Atwell’s Cavaliers will be trying for two titles in a row when they meet Davie at 5:45.
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NO LETDOWN:Davie boys coach Jim Young promised that there will be no let-down for his club when it takes on East today for third place.
“I’ll have a fire in my belly for sure,” said Young,“and my kids have responded to every challenge all year. I’ll be disappointed if they don’t have that fire, too.
“I wish we could play 25 games a year in this kind of atmosphere. This is a great tournament and our kids love playing in front of all these people.”
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STRANGECALL: It looked like an ordinary layup, one like so many North Rowan star Bryan McCullough had thrown up. But the layup didn’t count.
As the ball went into the basket against East Rowan in Thursday’s semis, the ref waved it off and called a technical on the 6-5 — and baffled — McCullough.
The ref said McCullough had put his hand on the basket aiding his layup attempt.
“I’ve never seen that before,” the ref told those on press row.
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Ronnie Gallagher and Mike London contributed to the notebook.
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