Hurt blew out candles on Wednesday afternoon, but then had to look on helplessly as his Black Knights (1-2) get blown out 83-47 by unbeaten Davie County (5-0) on Wednesday night.

“Not much of a birthday,” groaned Hurt, after Davie finally stopped hurting his team. “Davie’s obviously a better team than we are. If you want to beat a team that’s better than you, you’d better play a lot smarter than them. But we played stupid and turned the ball over and when you do that what chance do you have?”

Not much. Davie isn’t perfect, but teams will have to play very well in order to beat them.

Davie, which got superhuman fourth-quarter performances in recent days from star guard Duane Phillips to beat Bishop McGuinness and Salisbury didn’t need any miracles in this one.

The War Eagles ran and pressed savagely from the get-go. They made 13 of their first 16 shots and established a 15-point lead after just five minutes against their old rival.

It was a frustrating first quarter for Hurt, who watched his team shoot 64 percent and still go down 14 points.

“That was good to see,” said Davie coach Jim Young. “We’ve been starting slow and finishing good. Tonight, I asked the guys to try and get out of the gate fast and they really responded.”

Davie big men Larry Umberger and Djorde Lukic seemingly got every rebound and kept hitting swift guard Dominic Graham with long passes for easy layups.

“We look for that,” said Young. “When kids control the boards like we did, you can let people release early.”

Davie scored a staggering 33 points in the first quarter, displaying speed, size and the most depth Young has had in his three years in Mocksville.

“Years past, our first five could play with a lot of people,” said Young. “But we’d get in foul trouble and our No. 6-7-8 guys couldn’t match up. Now, they can.”

Davie had a long list of contributors, proving that while Phillips is an outstanding player, the War Eagles are more than a one-man show.

Graham led Davie with 18 points, while Phillips scored an unforced 14. The 6-6 Umberger scored 13 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for his third double-double of the year.

Davie led by as many as 25, before the Knights successfully slowed the tempo late in the second quarter and cut the War Eagles’ lead to 44-27 at halftime.

But Davie started the second half with a strong 8-0 run to remove any doubts about the outcome.

“We came back out and took charge of things,” said a pleased Young.

Umberger had seven rebounds in the third quarter and Graham scored four more quick buckets.

“We’re still far from the top of our game,” said Young. “But we are getting closer. Ilike where we are after five games.”

NOTES: Davie big man Jon Orsillo scored all nine of his points in the fourth quarter, including a huge dunk. Orsillo had a frustrating first half, picking up three fouls in two appearances in perhaps one minute on the court. ... Phillips received a game ball from Young prior to the game, commemorating his reaching the 1,000-point milestone Tuesday night against Salisbury.

N.DAVIDSON (47)— Craver 10, Williams, Sluss, Troutman 2, Hedrick 9, Wilkes 4, Wagner 14, Rush 6, Randall 2, Ratliff.

DAVIE (83) — Phillips 14, Lassiter 11, Lukic 6, Graham 18, Umberger 13, Orsillo 9, Crump 4, Britton 3, Tenor, Gustafson 5.

N.Davidson 19 8 10 10 — 47