The way the Raiders saw it, though, that just wouldn’t be good enough. And it wasn’t.

Davie County scored eight of the game’s final 10 points Friday night to escape with a 44-40 victory to conclude the 4A Central Piedmont Conference season. The Raiders fought through foul trouble, frustration, turnovers and an inspired Senior Night showing from the War Eagles, and still the result was the same — the third loss of the season to Davie.

“We executed everything really well and should have beaten them, but it was eight-on-five. The guys in the black and white shirts were terrible,” South senior Jennifer Morgan said. “We just have to learn to play with that.”

At the heart of South’s discontent were three fouls whistled on 6-foot-1 sophomore center Brittney Gaddy in the game’s first nine minutes. Especially stinging to the large contingent of Raider fans was foul No. 2, called with seven-10ths of a second left in the first quarter after what appeared to be a clean block; and No. 3, an over-the-back call on an offensive rebound attempt that came after a mugging on her own shot attempt.

When Gaddy left in the first minute of the second quarter, South (4-19 overall, 1-7 CPC) led 7-6. At halftime the game belonged to Davie: 24-14.

The War Eagle seniors, led by guard Tina Harkness, took advantage of a suddenly scrambling South squad. Harkness pulled up for a 3-pointer, then drilled an open look from the top of the arc the next time down the floor for a 14-9 lead.

Morgan, who scored all seven of South’s points in the quarter, tied the game on back-to-back layups, but Davie (10-13, 4-4) ended the final three minutes with a 10-0 run on three free throws from senior Julie McDaniel, a Harkness layup and jumpers from Shelby Michael and Randi Moore.

Morgan and Gaddy combined for all 14 of South’s first-half points. To start the third quarter, the rest of the Raiders joined in. Morgan Andrews and Gaddy scored on putbacks before Mandy Yost fired a long outlet pass to Katie Willett for an easy layup. When Gaddy rebounded another miss a minute later, Davie called for a timeout to halt the 9-0 run.

Michael hit a jumper for the War Eagles’ first points with 3:03 left in the quarter, but an Ashlie Sheets post score left the game tied at 29-all with the final quarter left.

“The coaches have been telling us all season and people stepped up and played their roles,” Morgan said. “We did a pretty good job of executing.”

South head coach James Greene was much happier having five players in the scoring column instead of two.

“Tonight we stuck to the game plan. We played it exactly the way we wanted to,” Greene said. “Tonight we had the whole game.”

What South lacked was the extra little bit of motivation the War Eagles boasted: Senior Night. Harkness nailed another 3 to open the fourth quarter and McDaniel hit a jumper a minute later.

Still, Sheets gave South a 38-36 lead with three minutes remaining when she put back her own miss. Then McDaniel hit one free throw, then rebounded a missed free throw and put it in for a 39-38 lead.

Davie’s third senior, Jerri Ann Angell, scored her only bucket at a key time. Her putback with 2:20 remaining made it 41-38, and three Harkness free throws sealed the win.

“We showed a little bit of strength to be able to pull this one out,” Harkness said. “We came out in the fourth quarter and said we had to make a run.”

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NOTES: Gaddy, with no stats in the second quarter besides the one foul, finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds, while Morgan led the way with 15 points. … Davie finished 12-for-25 from the free-throw line, while South went 5-for-11. … The Raiders suffered at the hands of the War Eagle press, committing 23 turnovers to Davie’s nine.

SOUTH ROWAN (40) — Miller, Yost 3, Easley, Willett 2, Efird, Gaddy 14, Morgan 15, Andrews 2, Sheets 4.

DAVIE COUNTY (44) — McDaniel 13, Harkness 14, Angell 2, Michael 6, Hepler 2, Williams 2, Gajewski 1, Morton 2, Moore 2, Merlau.

South Rowan 7 7 15 11 — 40