MOCKSVILLE — Daisean Reddick and Seth Martin led a second half surge Friday night to boost the West Rowan Falcons to a 75-63 non-conference win at 4A Davie County.
For the Falcon girls, however, the third quarter proved to be a disaster as Davie put together a 20-6 run then held off a late charge to win 64-55. The loss dropped West to 5-11 while Davie completed a regular season sweep and evened their record at 8-8.
The West Rowan boys (9-7) beat the War Eagles (4-13) for the third time this season, all competitive battles including one in the Moir Christmas tourney. Friday’s win was the most impressive, however, as they used a crisp passing attack, tough inside play plus nine three pointers to pull away.
“I think we have had some really good moments passing the ball this year,” West Coach Mike Gurley noted. “Today was another indication that we don’t mind moving the ball and sharing it. We moved the ball, looked for the open man and played together.”
West used their passing game to create dribble penetration against man defense and when the War Eagles went zone, Martin, Reddick and Celexus Long made them pay with long range jumpers.
“They are just a tough match-up for us defensively,” Davie coach Mike Absher said. “Offensively we did some good things but we didn’t make enough plays and we didn’t rebound.”
The two teams battled evenly in the first half with West edging to a 38-32 halftime margin. At times it was a long range shooting contest between Martin, Long and Reddick against War Eagle sharpshooter Peyton Sell.
West turned the tide quickly in the third period as Long drove inside then Martin hit a three and Greg Joseph hit a putback to make the score 45-34.
Reddick took over from there as he notched 15 of his game high 20 points in the second half, including key free throws down the stretch. Davie tried to rally a couple of times but were not able to get the margin under 10 the rest of the way.
“It was a real close game but we got the win,” Reddick said. “I am a senior so I have to take over, be a leader and be prepared at all times.”
Close behind was Martin with 17 including 5 three’s and Long with 10. Kortez Weeks and Joseph had strong games with 8 each. Gurley also praised the efforts of Dearius Phillips, Chris Hassard and jayvee call-up Amara Morris who scored six.
West did play the game short handed as senior star Najee Tucker was away for a UNCC football recruit weekend and fellow senior Devin Parks was out of town on a family matter. The rest of the team stepped in and filled the void.
Sell, Davie’s 6-2 senior guard, led the way with 26 including four treys. Nic Starnes added 15.
It was an opposite experience for the West girls as they battled the much taller Davie squad on even terms in the first half. Sophomore Khaila Hall scored 12 of her team high 19 points in the first half as the Falcons were down just 29-28.
But as they have done often this season, West had one of those “bad quarters.”
Davie came out in the third period, pushed the ball inside to their bigs Aubriana Peebles and Ashley Hampton, and took firm command. A 10-1 run turned into a 20-6 quarter for Davie as Peebles put together back to back three point plays, pushing the margin to 14.
“That third quarter killed us,” West coach Ashley Poole. “We’ve been having trouble with that all year. If these girls play a complete game we are pretty tough to beat.”
The Falcon girls did make a couple of charges in the fourth quarter behind Hall and Taylor Martin, cutting the deficit to seven twice. But Davie was able to convert six of eight foul shots down the stretch to win by nine.
“We were really good in the third quarter especially getting the ball inside,” Davie coach Dave Ruemenapp said. “Then we hit some very important free throws down the stretch. That was a good win for our confidence.”
Davie was topped by Peebles with 24 and point guard Madison Zaferatos with 16. Inside players Hampton and Ivey Carney notched eight each. Following Hall for West was Martin with 17 including a pair of 3’s.
BOYS
WEST ROWAN (55) — Hall 19, Martin 17, Greene 5, S. Miller 5, Q. Miller 3, Cowan 3, Allessandrini 2, Lovell 1, Yow.
DAVIE (64) — A. Peebles 24, Zaferato 16, Carney 8, Hampton 8 , Peterson 6, Gadson 2, Bohannon, Martinez, Brown, C, Peebles.
W. Rowan 8 20 6 21 — 55
Davie 13 16 20 15 — 64
GIRLS
WEST ROWAN (75) — Reddick 20, Martin 17, Long 10, Weeks 8, Joseph 8, Morris 6, Hassard 4, Phillips 2, Wood, Caldwell, Valle.
DAVIE (63) — Sell 26, Starnes 15, Bennett 8, McDaniel 7, Colamarino 3, Poole 3, Dalton 1, Redmond, Mua.

W. Rowan 15 23 17 20 — 75
Davie 14 18 12 19 — 63