His Raiders played one very good half and one very awful half — a recipe that will get them beaten to a pulp in any 4A Central Piedmont Conference game they play the rest of this season. But against struggling Kannapolis, South’s uneven effort was sufficient to earn a 69-62 win.

“We played a nice first half, executed and looked pretty good,” said Davis, who pleaded guilty to rattling the walls in his postgame comments to his team. “I talked to ‘em at the half about not getting complacent. And what did we do? We went out there content with ourselves and did everything in our power to give the game away.”

Fortunately for the Raiders, Kannapolis (4-11) wasn’t too interested in South’s generosity.

South (5-11) dominated the first half, getting scoring from eight players. Drew King, Nathan Kennedy and Tore’ Girty broke down Wonder defenders and punched the ball inside and Tim Cook, Maurice Torrence, Damien Argrett and Jon Faggart finished the plays.

King chalked up six first-half assists, while Argrett had 10 first-half points.

“We just didn’t show up ready to play,” said Wonder coach Shelwyn Klutz. “We kept gambling for steals and kept giving South layups.”

The biggest play of the first half came from Cook. Midway through the second quarter, the Raiders’ football quarterback drew a charging foul from Kannapolis guard/linebacker Jason Brown. When the floor of Bullock Gym stopped shaking, Brown was assessed his third foul. Brown is the main man for the Wonders offense, and with him benched, South quickly ran out to a 39-23 lead by halftime.

Davis figured the Raiders would apply the knockout blow early in the second half and cruise home the same way they did when they ripped the Wonders 63-42 earlier this season in Landis.

“It was time to finish the job,” said Davis. “You get a team down, you can’t let them back up. It was time to stick the dagger in them.”

Instead, the Raiders stuck it in themselves. Suddenly, they couldn’t do much of anything right. Kannapolis has quickness and began forcing turnovers and getting much easier shots than it got in the first half.

“The first half we did OK, but we were disappointed with the second half,” said Raider junior Doug Daugherty.

Some particularly disappointing play by the Raiders led to a 15-4 Wonder run. And all at once, that imposing 16-point lead had melted to 43-38 by the middle of the third quarter. After that, the Wonders decided they might as well hang around. And the Raiders couldn’t shake them.

Kannapolis actually had three possessions, trailing by just five, as the clock ticked under five minutes. But each time, the Wonders failed to get closer.

“That was the key to the game right there,” said Klutz. “We had chances, but we didn’t convert.”

South led only 58-53 when Daugherty finally iced the issue with a strong baseline drive at 3:30 and a 3-pointer from the wing at 2:06.

“He got five big points,” said Davis. “Those five might have been the difference. Doug can get on a roll. When he shot that 3-pointer, the guys on the bench all said, ‘That’s in.’ He hit eight or nine in a row in practice the other day.”

Two in a row was all Daugherty got against the Wonders, but then again, his timing could hardly have been better. He helped South break a three-game losing skid and impressed Klutz as did several of his teammates.

“I know South plays in a tough league, but they’re a competitive team,” Klutz said. “They don’t hurt themselves with mistakes and they have lots of kids who can make open shots.”

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NOTES: South got such great shots in the first half that it went 15-for-24 from the field (63 percent). South was down to 44 percent in the second half.

SOUTHROWAN (69) — Beck 4, King 11, Faggart 6, Cook 6, Argrett 19, Daugherty 11, Torrence 4, Childers, Kennedy, Girty 8.

KANNAPOLIS (62) — Brown 19, Henry 7, A.Allison 11, Collins 7, Miller 10, Barrier 4, Clowney, Gibson, T.Allison 4, Blakeney.

South Rowan 18 21 14 16 — 69