By Jordan Honeycutt
sports@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — The Davie County girls ran into an opponent as tough as Steele in the Moir Classic –– Shay Steele, that is.
West advanced 47-38 in its opener as Steele was a perfect 11-for-11 from the field and scored 28 points, outscoring the War Eagles by herself through three quarters.
“Shay is always a huge part of our offense and we knew they had little size,” West coach Todd McNeely said. “She was able to make her shots and be effective all day.”
West jumped out to 24-9 halftime lead, but Davie rallied back to within single digits late in the game. West was simply too much.
Davie star Amy Steller tried her best to carry the War Eagles, scoring 17 points and draining a trio of three-pointers in the third quarter.
“West is a team that showed they could beat us with one player, and they have that player, and she did it today,” Davie coach Denny Key said.
West did something that in a close game against a good shooting team can be very risky as they went with a zone defense against the War Eagles.
Unfortunately, the only person hitting shots was Steller. No one else had more than Laura Shelton’s six.
The War Eagles had the driving lanes open and Steller and Shelton took advantage but they always ran into Steele and had to alter their shot, which resulted in wild, rim-avoiding heaves.
“We can play better than this,” Key said. “For some reason we are still having problems attacking the zone, which with our shooters, we shouldn’t. But we have to continue coming to play for a full 32 minutes.”
Anytime Steller would drain a three, West just threw it inside to Steele for a layup or three-point play and there was absolutely no inside presence to stymie her.
The starting center for Davie was sub six-foot freshman Asiah Peterson.
Assisting Steele in scoring were Quanice Miller with eight.
“I thought we did great getting Shay the ball and playing well as a team in the first half,” McNeely said. “We fell asleep in the second half, though, and we have got to learn how to put teams away and start doing it.”
West will now advance to take on powerhouse Salisbury today at 3.
Davie will face East Rowan at noon.
DAVIE (38) — Stellar 17, Shelton 6, Peterson 5, Bode 3, Smith 3, Gadson 2, Bohannon, Wooten, Jones.
WEST ROWAN (47) — Steele 28, Miller 8, Dixon 4, Barber 2, Hunter 2, Sobotaka 2, Cross, Harrington, Dutton.
Davie 07 02 15 14 — 38
W. Rowan 14 10 10 13 — 47