MOCKSVILLE— It’ll take one more game to know for sure, but for now, it looks like Sean Stevens was right.
The War Eagle shooting guard called South Rowan’s victory over Davie in the Sam Moir Christmas Classic “a fluke.” Friday night on Davie’s home court, the War Eagles evened the season series at 1-1 with an impressive 103-70 victory in the 4A Central Piedmont Conference showdown.
“Let’s just say I didn’t have to bring any guest speakers in,”Davie County head coach Jim Young said. “The kids felt that they should’ve been in the finals to play West, that we let the people down and themselves down by not playing good ball down there.
“We wanted to make sure that people understand it was a fluke.”
Nem Kreckovic hit for 16 of his game-high 24 points in the first half, Stevens drained 19 and Matt Moser added 15 points off the bench, all in the second half, to lead four War Eagles in double figures.
Davie (10-3 overall, 2-1 CPC) doubled up the Raiders in each of the first three quarters:It was 20-10 after one, 42-21 just before halftime and 62-31 with 2:45 left to play in the third.
“We didn’t do a very good job of getting to the shooters,”South Rowan head coach John Davis said. “We did a little better job in the second half, but then they were hitting everything they shot from outside.”
A loss in the Sam Moir Christmas Classic wasn’t the only thing Davie rebounded from. The War Eagles entered Friday night’s game following a loss at West Forsyth in which they shot 24 percent from the floor.
Against the Raiders, Davie drained a remarkable 50 percent of its field-goal attempts (37-for-74) and 46 percent from long range. Behind Moser’s second-half outburst, the War Eagles made 63 percent (10-for-16) of their 3-point attempts over the final two quarters.
“We hadn’t had a bad shooting night all year,”Young said. “We started out that way tonight, then the kids started putting it in the hoop like they’re capable of doing. We got the lead, then they (his shooters) relaxed. That helped, too.”
South (8-8, 0-3) held its last lead at 8-7 before Kreckovic scored 11 straight points on a three-point play, two 3s and a spinning bank shot in the lane.
A pair of South turnovers helped the War Eagles score the first eight points of the second quarter, forcing Davis to burn his second timeout. But the Raiders missed too many shots in the quarter (3-for-16 shooting)to keep it close and Davie led 44-21 at the break.
“Our team’s got to realize you can’t wait until the last minute to come back,”Raider post player Jarrel Mack said. “It seems like we’re a better second-half team than a first-half team.”
Mack provided one of few highlights for South in the third quarter, when he scored all 11 of his points. Davis also liked what he saw from Ryan Keener, who drained four 3-pointers to finish with a team-high 16.
“I though Jarrel and Keener played probably the best games they’ve played for us all year,”Davis said. “Keener looked a lot more confident outside, it was probably the best game he’s played on the varsity.”
Junior guard David Lane kept South even with Davie in a wild fourth quarter. Lane hit a trio of 3-pointers for 11 points in the period as the War Eagles outscored South 31-29 over the final eight minutes.
The only remaining drama was if Davie could hit the century mark. It did, when Micah Garner scored on a putback in the closing minutes.
For his part, Davis said the War Eagles played exactly how he expected them to — and it had very little to do with the Christmas upset.
“We’re rivals,”Davis said. “Football-wise, basketball-wise, baseball, you name it. Davie County-South Rowan’s been a rivalry for a long time, so that’s no surprise.”
Round 3 of the rivalry comes Feb. 8 at SouthRowan.
SOUTH ROWAN (70) — Lane 11, Morgan 1, Hornbeak 13, Thomas 1, Corriher 8, Overcash 4, Patterson 5, Keener 16, Mack 11, Terry, Biles, Barnhardt.
DAVIE COUNTY (103) — Moser 15,Stevens 19, Hogue 9, Hunter 2, Sullivan 13, Wallace 2, Garner 4, Kreckovic 24, Stein 7, Guberinic 2, Phelps 6, Vestal.
South Rowan 10 11 20 29 — 70
Davie County 20 24 28 31 — 103
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Contact Steve Hanf at 704-797-4256 or shanf@salisburypost.com
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