By Ronnie Gallagher
rgallagher@salisburypost.com
West Rowan and Davie County have played two girls games in the past week. Each one has gone down to the wire.
Davie has won both, the latest on Saturday in the first round of the Sam Moir Christmas Classic.
Kellie Brown scored seven clutch, fourth-quarter points as the War Eagles (5-6) overcame a 7-point second-half deficit to edge the Falcons 43-39.
“We want everybody to get their money’s worth, I guess,” Davie coach Debbie Evans chuckled.
That’s her take. West coach Erich Epps thinks the West fans deserve a refund after the Falcons fell to 4-5.
“They just outhustled us,” growled Epps.
West committed 24 turnovers, keeping the Falcons from pulling away.
When Desere Cross scored on a rebound, West led 24-19. But a rebound bucket by Mechel Gadson and a 16-footer by freshman Janna Dixon put Davie within one at halftime.
West appeared ready to take control of the game in the third quarter. Ayana Avery, who finished with 21 points on 8-of-21 shooting, swished a runner and rattled home a 3. Cross added an inside bucket and the Falcons were up 31-24 with four minutes left.
By the end of the third, however, Davie led 32-31, leaving Epps befuddled.
“Other than two or three girls, nobody’s stepping up,” he said.
Much of Davie’s offense came on rebounding and defense.
“We certainly didn’t do everything right,” Evans said. “But our hustling, rebounding and defense were pretty good”
Epps agreed, saying, “Their inside girls are so much better than my inside girls. Brown, (Sarah) Evans and Gadson ó I don’t have anybody to compare to those three. We had trouble with their 2-2-1 press because we’ve got girls who still can’t catch the ball.”
Davie turned to Brown in the final quarter as Evans spread the court. Brown scored the War Eagles’ first five points and then sealed the game with two free throws with 3.6 seconds left.
“We know she’s probably our best free-throw shooter,” Evans said of Brown, who scored 15.
Now, Davie faces top seed Salisbury on Monday. The War Eagles lost in an early season matchup 64-47.
“We felt like we did some good things against them,” Evans said. “We’ll take it as a challenge.”
DAVIE (43) ó Brown 15, Smoot 7, J. Dixon 7, Gadson 6, Turner 4, Evans 2, Tucker 2, K. Dixon, Keiser, Stewart, Stevenson.
west rowan (39) ó Avery 21, Cross 9, Simmons 7, Moose 2, Calloway, Dutton, Gillespie, Watkins, Holoway, Watson, Baucom, Parker.Davie 10 13 9 11 ó 43
W. Rowan 12 12 8 7 ó 51