WINSTON-SALEM — In the much-anticipated rubber match, Davie County bounced
South Rowan from the 4A Central Piedmont Conference Tournament — and from the
2001 season.
Fifth-seeded Davie (15-9) rolled 92-73 in Monday’s
first-round game over a fourth-seeded Raider team that had walloped the War
Eagles by 27 points in Landis just three nights earlier.
“It’s like I said then,” shrugged Davie coach
Jim Young. “The game at South decided nothing other than who’d wear black
and who’d wear white in this tournament. But this game — this was the one
that really counted.”
Davie’s reward — if you can call it that — is
a meeting tonight with top-seeded R.J. Reynolds, the consensus pick as the state’s
best team. And they’ll be playing on the Demons’ home floor. Davie will be
underdogs by 30 or so.
“Yeah, but we’ve got a shot,” said Young. “You
never know and that’s why you play the games. We can’t lose by playing a
game with Reynolds. Whatever happens, it can’t do anything but help our young
kids for next year.”
Davie didn’t need any help against South (11-13).
It made its first 13 foul shots, hit 59 percent from the field and upped that
marksmanship to a startling 79 percent in the fourth quarter. The primary
culprit was junior guard Sean Stevens, who hit nine 3-pointers and got a ton of
breakaway layups on long outlet passes from Rod Tenor.
Stevens finished with 43 points, two short of Dwayne
Grant’s school record set during the 1976-77 season.
“Stevens was shooting them from deep,” said
Davis. “He was out there where you say, ‘Go ahead and shoot.’ He had a
good night.”
Speaking of school records, South coaches determined
after looking at Friday’s game film that senior forward Doug Daugherty tallied
40 points against Davie — tying Damien Argrett’s year-old school scoring
mark. Daugherty had been credited with 38 in the scorebook, but a rebound basket
originally credited to Scott Beck should have gone to Daugherty.
Seniors Daugherty, Beck and Tore’ Girty bombed in
another 61 points last night, but the Raiders couldn’t find points from other
sources, mostly because the Raiders’ inside starters — high-jumping seniors
Marcus Rucker and Maurice Torrence — were missing in inaction.
South coach John Davis said Torrence was at the 3 o’clock
shootaround, but missed the bus. Rucker was not at school or at the shootaround
and didn’t make the trip. Adding to the Raiders’ misery, South’s starting
point guard Nathan Kennedy was sidelined with a stomach virus and defensive
specialist Ricky Childers, usually the first guard off the bench and the guy who
would have guarded Stevens, was not with the team for reasons Davis preferred
not to discuss.
“Torrence and Rucker — that’s 30 points right
there,” sighed Davis. “The kids we had gave us great effort and I was proud
to coach them. Some really good seniors, who have meant a lot to this program,
played their last game. No one has a better bunch of kids.”
Had South been whole and given the way Davie was
shooting the ball, this could have been a game as exciting as the one in
Mocksville that Davie won in the last minute. Instead, Young’s fired-up troops
broke it open before halftime.
Stevens’ layup triggered by a Tenor block gave the
War Eagles the lead for good at 18-17 two minutes into the second quarter.
It was only 30-25 Davie after Daugherty hit the
second of his seven 3-pointers three minutes before halftime, but the War Eagles
closed the half with an 11-2 run for a 41-27 lead at intermission. And without
an inside game, South couldn’t make a run in the second half, even when it put
up 34 points in the fourth quarter, 12 of them on 3s by Daugherty.
“It looks nice when you’re shooting the ball
from outside like we had to do,” said Davis. “But you don’t hit all of
them. And if you can’t rebound the misses, that hurts.”
n
NOTES:All three South-Davie games generated some
heat this season. “That’s good,” said Young with a grin. “This rivalry
was getting a little quiet. I’m glad we’ve wowed it up a little. These three
games have been like something (West Rowan coach) Mike Gurley would have
scripted for us.”
DAVIE COUNTY (92)— Stevens 43, Sullivan 2, N. Propst 5, Zajmovic 18, Hogue 6, Crump 2, Stein 8, Tenor 8.
SOUTHROWAN(73) — Daugherty 24, Beck 20, Girty 17, Hornbeak 8, Patterson, Mack 2, Morgan, Diggs, Willett 2, Biles.
Davie Co. 13 28 20 31 — 92
So. Rowan 15 12 12 34 — 73
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