CLEMMONS — Talk about your lucky sevens.
Once given up for dead at 7-7, Davie County’s girls basketball team tearfully and cheerfully savored its first twin trophies presentation in seven long years on Friday night.
Already regular-season champs of the 4A Central Piedmont Conference, Davie (15-8) added the conference tournament title to its growing resume with a palpitating 51-45 overtime victory over arch-enemy West Forsyth in a gym filled to fire-code capacity in anticipation of the West Forsyth-R.J. Reynolds boys championship to follow.
Coach Carol Cozart’s War Eagles shot poorly, but persevered in a venue that has been a house of horrors for them in recent years. While Davie destroyed the Titans (15-12) in the teams’ regular-season meeting in Mocksville, it was nipped by the same Titans when the teams faced off in Clemmons.
“We’ve never had any good luck here,” understated Davie senior forward Ashley Williams. “Winning at West is really tough.”
Davie started out well enough, using its familiar modus operandi of guard Brittany Walker sneaking the ball down low to Dawn Singleton (16 points) for easy buckets. The War Eagles leaped out of the gate 7-1 and led by as many as 11 in the first half, but their offense ground to a halt in the third quarter.
“West’s zone slowed us down,” said Cozart. “We couldn’t get out in transition like we wanted.”
While Davie stalled, the Titans balled. By the end of the third quarter, the War Eagles were hanging on 33-29. And midway through the fourth, the Titans went in front for the first time at 38-37 when Emily Guthrie nailed a 3-point bomb.
And by now a mostly pro-Titan crowd was feeling its oats.
“Our spectators are good,” said West coach T.R. Richards, whose third-seeded team upset South Rowan on Thursday. “They change ballgames.”
A clutch 3-pointer by Walker sent Davie back in front 40-38 with 3:29 left, but Davie was starting to stagger, mostly because its leading scorer Sarah Williams, usually as automatic as they come at the foul line, was having a struggle at the stripe to the delight of the crazed crowd.
“Sarah probably missed more free throws tonight than she has all season put together,” said Cozart. “First thing she said to me after the game was she wanted to go practice foul shots.”
“I kept telling her, ‘Sarah, you have to block the crowd out, block it out,” said Ashley Williams. “It was nail-biting for all of us, but we were going to fight to the end.”
With Davie down one with 1:25 to go, Sarah Williams got a free throw to drop for a 42-all tie. Then in the closing minute of regulation, Davie forced a flurry of West turnovers, beginning with a 10-count in the backcourt created by the swarming defense of Allison Schafer, Sarah Williams and Walker.
“We’ve got two guards (Schafer and Sarah Williams) who are a good 5-10,” said Cozart. “It’s hard to pass over all those long arms and legs and then we’ve got a 5-9 girl behind them (Ashley Williams) who can just about touch the rim. “Defense fuels our girls’ emotions and our defense becomes our offense.”
Schafer, a sophomore, stepped to center-stage with a crazy up-and-down spree down the stretch. With the score still tied at 42, Schafer turned the ball over. Then she stole it back. Then she missed a layup.
“I was nervous as anything,” said Schafer. “I was just trying to fluster them with my defense. I tried to play like it was the last game I’d ever play in my life. Every time I messed up, I just went harder.”
Hard work paid off. Schafer deflected a pass into the hands of Sarah Williams, who was fouled with 33 seconds left. Williams made two tosses this time, accidentally banking in the second one for a 44-42 Davie lead.
It still wasn’t over. Titan soph Jennifer Wright scored off an inbounds play to send the game to OT. That’s when the War Eagles took a deep breath. They had been here before. Just last week, they’d won an OT thriller in North Davidson’s hostile gym.
“I told everyone that it was the start of the game and that we were going to be OK,” said Ashley Williams. “I said, ‘Let’s play our tails off.’ ”
Davie did just that, especially Schafer, who scored two quick layups off turnovers to help the War Eagles dominate the overtime session 7-1.
“Davie’s press gave us trouble,” acknowledged Richards. “That was the thing. That and our youth. We’re mostly freshmen and sophomores who went two-and a whole bunch last season. “Those kids had never been in a game like this or a gym this hot.”
“We pulled it out, because we all pulled together,” smiled Ashley Williams. “We did this together and it feels really good.”
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NOTES: Davie starts playoff action on Wednesday at home.
WEST FORSYTH (45) — Wright 12, Eccles 11, Scott 7, Guthrie 6, Carter 4, Swaim 3, Bumgarner 2,
DAVIE COUNTY (51) — Singleton 16, S.Williams 15, Schafer 8, Walker 8, A.Williams 2, Merlau 2.
W. Forsyth 5 10 14 15 1 — 45
Davie Co. 11 12 10 1 1 7 — 51
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Contact Mike London at 704-797-4259 or mlondon@salisburypost.com
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