From staff reports

The Moir Christmas Classic notebook …

South Rowan girls coach Jim Brooks and assistant Laurie Corriher sported their finest “Hawaii Five-O” apparel for the first round of the tournament.

Brooks reminded a few in the crowd of Jack Lord, a few others of Don Ho.

Brooks’ Raiders didn’t make many waves, however, losing to Davie County 45-39 in a hard-fought contest.

Now South is out of the tourney until a noon consolation game on Friday.

“The shirts were fun,” Brooks said. “But it’s a whole lot more fun if you win.”

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THE BOARD ROOM: Salisbury’s Shanae Knox reeled in a game-high 11 rebounds in the 71-19 win over Carson — but took a ribbing from her teammates for doing so.

“Yeah 11 rebounds,” coach Jennifer Shoaf said with a chuckle. “But a lot of them were off her own missed shots. We were picking on her about that. We told her she was padding her own stats. I know on one possession she missed three straight and got her own rebound on all of them. I mean, it’s great to get rebounds but not when you’re missing and putting them back up.”

Knox took it all in stride. “I’m working on it,” the 5-6 junior smiled. “I’m trying to fix it for the next game.”

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SHE’LL BE BACK: Get ready to see East sophomore Katelynne Poole back in action today. The heady point guard has been rehabbing the sprained ankle she suffered in practice Dec. 19, but coach Karen Garmon indicated, “she’s good to go,” after Wednesday’s first-round loss.

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M*A*S*H UNIT: Junior Brooke Taylor started for West Rowan in its overtime win against East, just three weeks after suffering a bubble fracture of her left wrist. She had 12 points, five rebounds and four assists in 28 minutes.

“She played in both of our games last week but was ineffective,” said Falcons’ coach Bob Blake. “Tonight was the first time she was effective.”

Taylor, who averages 14 points per game, said she still has trouble dribbling and her shot isn’t where it was pre-injury, but was happy to be in the lineup.

“I saw Dr. (Andrew) Jeter yesterday,” she said. “They manipulated and popped every bone. It really hurt. They readjusted everything.”

Everything but her competitive edge.

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HURTING: South senior Wesley Honeycutt didn’t look like he’d be able to walk when he was injured in the first half of Davie’s 70-60 win over the Raiders, but he returned to the floor after sitting out eight minutes.

He finished with 10 points and four steals, and coach John Davis is optimistic South’s day off on Thursday will aid his recovery.

The early diagnosis on Honeycutt’s injury is a hyper-extended knee.

“You hate to seen anyone get hurt,” Davis said. “Wesley couldn’t move or jump the way he usually does.”

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WISE MOVE: South’s Katie Wise, a 6-foot-3 junior, didn’t score on Wednesday, but she swatted three shots on one Davie possession.

Wise’s minutes are limited by a stress fracture in a foot.

“I just had a week of rest, so I’m good right now,” Wise said. “The doctors have told me I can keep playing.”

Wise had a one-word response for another loss to Davie.

“Annoying,” she said.

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KEEP TRYING: Doug Campbell doesn’t get many opportunities to dunk as a 6-foot-1 point guard. He got a chance Wednesday — but didn’t convert.

Going in for an uncontested look at the basket, Campbell decided to attempt a dunk. He didn’t get high enough, and the ball rattled off the rim.

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DIAPER DANDY: Carson freshman Darius Moose had perhaps his best game of the season in a loss to Salisbury.

The Hornets have more size than any team in the county, but Moose, a 6-foot-2 forward, still managed to score 19 points on 9-of-18 shooting.

“He’s gonna be good,” Carson coach Brian Perry said. “He’s a freshman, he’s big, he knows how to play, he’s got good hands, he’s got a good shot. When he catches the ball down low, I feel like he can score or get on the foul line typically. And he did a lot of scoring tonight.

“I’m glad he’s here; I’m glad he’s a freshman.”

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MAY DAY: South sophomore Taylor May was upset with South’s fourth straight loss but detected progress.

“We haven’t gotten over the hump, but we’ve gotten to the hump,” she said. “At least we got to wear white (as the higher seed) today. It’s been a while since South got to wear white here.”

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KEEP TRYING PART II: West senior Jamel Carpenter wowed the crowd with a putback dunk late in the third quarter of the Falcons’ victory against North, but he tried to get a little too emphatic on a dunk attempt on West’s next possession.

Carpenter had an open lane to the basket on the left side and tried to dunk from about 6 or 8 feet away. The ball sailed over the rim and out of bounds when Carpenter’s hand hit the rim.

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EYE OF THE TIGER: West coach Mike Gurley saw “Rocky Balboa” on Christmas night and said he used a line from the movie as part of his motivational halftime speech Wednesday.

It must have worked. West trailed 37-27 at halftime but won 69-61.

Not to give anything away, but in the movie, Rocky says something along the lines of, “It’s now how hard you hit. It’s how hard you can get hit, get up and still move forward.”

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LET’S GET PHYSICAL: Willie Sherrill starred as a linebacker on West’s football team, but he plays a more subtle role for Gurley.

Sherrill played only 10 minutes yesterday, but he dived on one loose ball as if he were pouncing on a fumble. Then, in the fourth quarter, he mishandled a pass from Carpenter, chased it down, dived out of bounds and saved the ball to teammate K.J. Sherrill, who scored on a layup.

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STAR GAZING: Former Salisbury football and basketball player Scotty Robinson attended the Salisbury-Carson boys game. Robinson just finished his first season as a defensive end at East Carolina, where he earned all-freshman honors in Conference USA.

* Former North Rowan basketball star Sophilia Hipps also was at Goodman Gym. Hipps is leading South Carolina State in scoring as a freshman.

* Two of South’s 2005-06 stars — Michael Gore and Josh Chapman — were in attendance.

Gore is playing at Coker. Chapman recently became a Pfeiffer Falcon. He can practice with the Falcons this semester and will be eligible to start playing in games next fall.

* N.C. State linebacker Patrick Lowery, honorable mention All-ACC after leading the Wolfpack with 102 tackles, was on hand to watch his little brother, Eric, run the War Eagles’ offense.

* Brittany Walker, MVP when Davie won the Christmas tourney in 2000, was in attendance.

She’s now a member of North Carolina’s golf team and hopes to go on to medical school.

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TOUGH ROAD: Davie’s girls earned a semifinal meeting with top-seeded North Rowan.

The Cavaliers survived a 17-0 first-half run by Davie and handled the War Eagles 56-42 in an earlier meeting in Mocksville.

Sisters will be opponents. Tonesha Turner is a starting guard for Davie, while Cree Turner is usually in North’s rotation.

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COOL CUSTOMER: Davie girls coach Debbie Evans doesn’t demonstrate excess emotion on the sideline, but Kellie Brown says she’s good at motivating.

“It might not be visible to the fans,” Brown said, “but she does get fired up.”

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ALL IN THE FAMILY: Sarah Evans, a promising War Eagle sophomore, is the coach’s niece.

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JONI LOVES REBOUNDING: Davie’s Joni Garrett only scored three points, but she hurt South with 11 rebounds and five steals.

Davie actually had more offensive rebounds (19-17) than the towering Raiders.

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SAY WHAT? While it wasn’t a good day for South’s boys, fans did learn Bo Caldwell’s real name. On stat sheets and player introductions, Bo was officially “Franklin Caldwell.”

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STREAK: Davie coach Mike Absher has quietly become a tournament success story.

Davie has played in the semifinals in all five of Absher’s years as head coach and won Moir titles in 2003 and 2004.

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WOLFORD IMPRESSES: Absher likes South point guard David Wolford, who is having a spectacular senior season.

Wolford shot 8-for-15 from the field, including four 3-pointers.

“He’s a distributor and also a shooter and a finisher inside,” Absher said. “He’s their glue.”

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STOPPING THE BLEEDING: Davie’s boys ended a four-game losing streak coming into the tournament and also a four-game, two-season losing streak to South.

Davie beat South for only the fourth time in 15 Moir meetings.

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Mike London, Nick Bowton and David Shaw contributed to the notebook.