MOCKSVILLE — For a moment there, Davie County’s wide-eyed girls basketball team thought Bobby Knight had snuck into their frantic timeout huddle.
No chairs were flying, but the words were. And they weren’t especially flattering.
“Just say I challenged them,” said the War Eagles’ ordinarily low-key coach Carol Cozart. “I did use a little sterner voice than I usually use.”
It worked.
Cozart’s girls, down 59-51 with 2:58 left to play and on the verge of having their season terminated, roared out of that timeout tirade as if they were Terminators from an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie.
Davie (17-8) scored the game’s last 14 points and sent Mount Tabor (16-12) packing from the second round of the 4A state playoffs with a stirring 65-59 victory.
“We got our butts chewed,” said Davie point guard Brittany Walker, Cozart’s coach on the floor. “We didn’t expect that, but we needed it. It lit a fire.”
It was a blaze Smokey the Bear couldn’t have extinguished.
Davie’s Sarah Williams, the way-tougher-than-she-looks strand of spaghetti who scored 19 points, swiped the inbounds pass, laid it in, took a hit, got the call, made the free throw. Three-point play — 59-54.
“The turning point,” said Tabor coach Mike Kneisel.
“The spark,” agreed Cozart. “After that steal, the girls really believed they could do it. And Brittany was pushing them all the way.”
“That’s my job,” said Walker, a 5-foot-7 drill sergeant who barked at any War Eagle who contemplated surrender. “I know what I have to do out there and my teammates understand that.”
Tabor tried to hold the ball. Davie wouldn’t let them. With two minutes to go, Dawn Singleton hit the floor for a steal. Twelve seconds later Walker found Singleton with a perfect lob — 59-56.
Then Singleton rebounded an ill-advised miss, started a break and Williams finished — 59-58.
“I was just trying to make up for all those turnovers I’d made earlier,” said Williams, who in a mixture of fatigue and frustration had asked Cozart to take her out in the third quarter. “I just had this feeling. None of us wanted Ashley (the team’s other Williams and Davie’s only senior starter) to turn in her jersey.”
Ashley Williams helped keep her No. 23 out of mothballs with a leaping steal on Tabor’s next possession.
“I just tried to anticipate,” she said. “I watched their eyes.”
A.W. got the ball to Walker, who zinged it to Sarah Williams underneath. Williams drew a foul. She’d struggled at the line in Davie’s last game, but not this time. She calmly put in two with 46.3 seconds left and Davie led 60-59.
And now the building was shaking.
Eight seconds later, Sarah Williams pilfered the ball on the press, and it was her turn to dish to Walker. Layup — 62-59 War Eagles.
“Sarah was making steals right and left,” said Walker. “She was everywhere. That’s why we won.”
Two Singleton free throws and one by Walker wrapped it up.
“I take full responsibility,” said Kneisel. “We should’ve kept attacking, but we started playing not to lose and it didn’t work. Davie’s press (keyed by the flailing arms of Sarah Williams and Allison Schafer) was great. They’re long and our guards couldn’t see over them.”
The first half was breakneck transition basketball with both teams topping 50 percent from the field. Quick-to-the-ball Tabor senior Meika Reaves was tremendous, scoring 17 of her 23 points before the break.
But Singleton and Schafer combined for 18 first-half points. That and Singleton’s post defense on Tabor’s intimidating freshman Kendra Eaton (who scored 32 in the first round of the playoffs) kept Davie close and a Sarah Williams 3-pointer gave the War Eagles a 37-34 halftime lead.
Davie lost its momentum in the third quarter by shooting 3-for-12 and was on the ropes before Cozart raised her voice and let her team know what had to be done.
Then they went out and did it.
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NOTES:Davie plays at Metro No. 1 East Forsyth, a potential state champ, on Friday. ... Five of Tabor’s losses were to East, one in OT. ... East’s best player, 6-foot-5 Chante Black, is a soph already being recruited by Duke and UNC. ... Davie boys coach Jim Young had high praise for the War Eagle girls. “They woulda kicked our butts tonight,” he said.
MOUNT TABOR (59) — Reaves 23, Eaton 13, Clapp 8, Mach 6, Bethea 5, Giles 2, Herb 2, Decker, Justus,
DAVIE COUNTY (65) — S.Williams 19, Singleton 14, Walker 12, Schafer 10, A.Williams 6, McDaniel 2, Merlau 2, Kahrs.
Mt. Tabor 13 21 15 10 — 59
Davie County 19 18 8 20 — 65
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Contact Mike London at 704-797-4259 or mlondon@salisburypost.com
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