Davie, the third seed from the Central Piedmont Conference, won a second-round 4A playoff game on Thursday night that not many folks thought it would.

The War Eagles (21-5) prevailed 70-58 on the floor of Northwestern Conference champion Freedom High (19-8), one of the legendary athletic schools in the state. Davie won in a hallowed arena where there are more championship plaques and banners hanging than in Yankee Stadium. Two of those banners, raised in 1994 and 1998, proclaim “4A state champions — boys basketball.”

Davie’s drive to get to Morganton by bus last night was two hours, but the drive to beat the Patriots and advance to the Sectional No. 4 finals against arch-foe R.J. Reynolds this Saturday night (at 8:30) actually began three years ago — the day coach Jim Young moved from Pennsylvania to Mocksville.

An ecstatic Young hugged each of his players in turn after last night’s victory, then informed them they were not only the winningest team in Davie history — which they are — but the best (bleeping) team in Davie history — which they undoubtably are, as well.

Most people had already figured that out. The first clue came when Davie overwhelmed North Rowan in the finals of the SamMoir Christmas Classic. The second, when the War Eagles stunned Reynolds in Mocksville, becoming one of only two teams to knock off the mighty Demons.

“People are going to say this was a surprise win,” said Davie star Duane Phillips, who tossed in 26 points. “Because Freedom is a name known around the state. But we didn’t care about their reputation. We just came up here to play hard and move to the next round.”

The game started shockingly well for Davie. After Marcus Lassiter fed Dominic Graham for an open 3-pointer, the War Eagles led 9-0 after less than three minutes. And Freedom coach Joe Davis was bellowing for a timeout.

“We wanted to jump them early and we did,” said Young. “We intimidated them, not the other way around. We intimidate because we’re from the CPC. People all over understand what kind of basketball league the CPC is.”

Freedom was awful early. It misfired on its first eight shots. Each of those eight misses was a one-and-done possession because Davie’s Djordje Lukic rebounded everything in sight. He finished with 19 boards.

“Djordje was a man tonight,” praised Young. “He was huge.”

The public address people never did get Lukic’s name right — calling him “George Lucas” for four quarters. But maybe that was appropriate. After all, George Lucas gave us Star Wars. And in this game, Lukic played like “The Force” was with him.

Davie led by seven after a quarter, but then Freedom got going. Davie needed four second-quarter 3s — three of them by Phillips — to hang on 32-28 at halftime.

In the third quarter, Davie nearly fell apart. The War Eagles looked more weary than the Patriots, who had shuttled 10 players in and out. Graham was bottled up and Phillips had misplaced his stroke, missing five of six shots in one stretch. And on the other end, Freedom guard Brandon Beam was heating up on 3s and 6-2 jumping jack Emanuel Rutherford was abusing the taller War Eagles with putbacks. Davie’s lead, once 10, had all but disappeared.

At 4:06, with Davie clinging to a 37-35 lead, Phillips launched an airball. Young reluctantly took his star out. Phillips needed to settle down. He was trying too hard to carry his team.

Now, Freedom smelled blood and ran off six more points for a 41-37 lead. Two of those points came on a wicked, two-handed slam from James Guthrie. That jam got the Freedom crowd, silent most of the night, rocking. And the handful of fans wearing orange were shaking their heads in dismay. Davie had scored four points in seven minutes and appeared finished.

But then Graham spotted Sean Stevens, the diminutive sophomore, who was playing jayvee ball not long ago. Stevens drilled a 3 from the wing to bring Davie back within 41-40. It was a crowd-quieter, a game-turner.

“That’s my role since I moved to varsity — to take open shots,” said Stevens. “I wasn’t nervous at all. You lose the nerves out on the floor. Adrenaline kicks in.”

Phillips followed Stevens’ stinger with another huge shot, canning a jumper off a feed from Graham as the third-quarter buzzer sounded. His soft 17-footer put Davie back in charge 42-41.

“I was confident, I mean, I wanted that shot,” said Phillips, who clapped his hands and pleaded for the ball. “We needed that one bad.”

Davie, which had stayed back in 2-3 and 1-3-1 zones early, trapped halfcourt in the fourth quarter. The surprise ploy created easy buckets. Graham scored on a pass from Larry Umberger, then stole the ball and sent it downcourt to a speeding Stevens for a layup. Then Stevens coolly rang up another 3, making it 12 straight for Davie. It was 49-41 with 5:18 to play.

“Having Sean, Duane and Dominic gives us three perimeter shooters,” said Young. “That spreads people. Then the inside opens up for the big guys.”

Freedom panicked a bit after Stevens’ second 3 and started launching 3s of its own. Most were plucked off the glass by the 6-7 Lukic and the 6-6 Umberger, who gave up several Freedom putbacks in the third quarter, but none down the stretch.

Davie’s lead dipped to 56-51 with 2:26 left, but then Phillips got loose for a hoop and Graham whipped a pass to Stevens for two, to push the lead back to nine.

Davie won going away at the foul line. Lukic, Phillips and Stevens combined for 26 of Davie’s 28 points in the final quarter.

Davie’s reward for its hard-earned triumph is a fourth meeting with Howard West’s awesome Reynolds machine, which crushed the War Eagles 100-57 in the recent CPC Tournament semifinals. But Davie was hamstrung in that game by illness to Phillips and injury to Umberger.

“They say Reynolds is the favorite to win the state,” said Phillips, now 100 percent. “But we beat them once, so why not us? Yeah, why not us.”

Why not, indeed.

DAVIECOUNTY(70) — Graham 15, Lassiter 4, Phillips 26, Umberger 3, Lukic 11, Stevens 11, R.Tenor, Orsillo, Gustafson.

FREEDOM(58) — Clark 1, Chapman, Leonhardt 9, Beam 16, Conley, Caldwell 10, Marley, Pritchard, Riddle, Rutherford 13, Guthrie 4, Rice 5, England.

Davie 15 17 10 28 — 70