By Mike London

mike.london@salisburypost.com

CHINA GROVE — The signature play of Davie’s 56-36 girls basketball win at Carson on Thursday was made by Davie junior Ashlyn Hampton early in the fourth quarter.
On one end of the floor, Hampton rejected a driving shot by Carson. Then, sprinting to the other end, she followed a teammate’s miss and scored on a stick-back.
Hampton, a 6-foot-1 junior, stuffed the stat sheet against the Cougars with 21 points, 12 rebounds, eight blocks and seven steals.
“We had no answer for her,” Carson coach Brooke Misenheimer said. “She’s a tough player.”
It was a tough opener for just about all of the Cougars.
“We just let a lot of little miscues balloon on us into a 20-point loss,” Misenheimer said. “It was not the way we wanted to start.”
Carson’s top returner Olivia Gabriel got into foul trouble — she was whistled for her fourth personal in the opening minute of the second half — and didn’t score until the fourth quarter.
Misenheimer is high on freshman McKenzie Gadson, an athletic transfer from Florida, and with good reason. Gadson got to the foul line frequently and led the Cougars with 14 points. Gabriel finished with seven. Kailie Ketchie got all of her six points in the second quarter. Sydney Taylor made a 3-pointer in the third quarter and scored five.
Hampton scored six points in the first quarter as Davie rolled to a 16-3 lead.
“We had a really slow start,” Misenheimer said.
Carson played much better in the second quarter, with Gadson and Ketchie doing some damage. The Cougars went to halftime down, 32-20, and still had a chance.
But Davie freshman Emma Slabach personally blew out the Cougars in the third quarter, scoring 13 of her 14 points in a couple of minutes. She made three 3-pointers in that spree.
“She can really shoot the basketball,” Davie coach Dave Ruemenapp said.
Davie point guard Madison Zaferatos scored 13 and did a good job controlling tempo.
“She used to be full speed all the time,” Ruemenapp said. “With experience, she’s learned when to push and when to pull it back a little bit.”
But mostly this one was about Hampton, who did whatever she wanted and whenever she wanted to do it.
“She’s got all the tools to be outstanding,” Ruemenapp said. “Confidence is starting to come for her, and when she plays confident, she can dominate.”
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NOTES: Davie dressed only eight of its 10 players. Ruemenapp said he expects to be at full strength soon.

Davie 56, Carson 36
DAVIE (56) — Hampton 21, Slabach 14, Zaferatos 13, Jones 4, C. Peebles 4, Crenshaw, Cockerha, Martinez.
CARSON (36) — Gadson 14, Gabriel 7, Ketchie 6, Taylor 5, Fesperman 2, Turney 2, Wiggins, Jackson, Furr, Shumaker, Street.

Davie 16 16 18 6 — 56
Carson 3 17 7 9 — 36