Davie’s varsity girls basketball team overwhelmed Carson 56-36 on the road on Nov. 19 in the season opener for both teams. Ashlyn Hampton had a lot to do with that.

The 6-1 center showcased her all-star credentials with 21 points, 12 rebounds, eight blocked shots, seven steals and three assists.

“We had no answer for her,” Carson coach Brooke Misenheimer told the Salisbury Post. “She’s a tough player.”

After missing four of her first five shots, Hampton found her rhythm, hitting eight of her final 14 attempts and matching her career high. She had 21 in last year’s win over West Forsyth.

Early in the fourth, one play summed up Hampton’s night. She blocked a shot, sprinted down the court on a fastbreak and scored on a putback.

“(After the slow start) she started doing what she’s capable of doing,” Davie coach Dave Ruemenapp said of the commitment to Division-I Campbell. “The blocks were unbelievable, and the blocks really energized her.”

Davie settled the issue early, taking a 16-3 lead in the first quarter and using an 18-7 run in the third to push the margin to 50-27.

Emma Slabach didn’t wait very long to flash her considerable ability. It took her one game. In the third quarter, the freshman exploded for 13 points in roughly three minutes. She hit three straight 3-pointers.

Slabach averaged 14.4 points last year for Ellis. Hitting 5-of-10 field goals and 3-of-6 3s, she had 14 in about 16 minutes of action in her Davie debut. She added five rebounds.

“That string (in the third) was really impressive,” Ruemenapp said. “She can really shoot the ball. Like Ashlyn, she missed her first few shots. After a couple went down, she started thinking I can do this. They started double-teaming Ashlyn and she immediately recognized who she needed to pass it to. The string that Emma got on, it was pretty much all passes out from Ashlyn.”

Point guard Madison Zaferatos just doesn’t have many off nights. She scored 13 to mark her 40th career double-figure game. She also had five boards.

“She used to be full-speed all the time,” he said. “With experience, she’s learned when to push and when to pull it back.”

Patterson Jones and Sha’veh Martinez were factors as Davie defeated Carson for the fourth time in a row.

“They played almost the entire game and controlled our tempo,” he said. “Patterson made a couple nice passes and one basket was a really nice left-handed layup down the middle of the lane. She’s starting to take on the role of our main defender. We mixed up our defenses, put her in a lot of different positions and she handled it all well.”

Ruemenapp only has 10 players, and two of them were unavailable to play. Then came Caitlyn Peebles’ foul trouble, reducing the bench even more. Peebles had four points, eight rebounds and three blocks in maybe a quarter of action before fouling out.

Two days later in the first round of the Mary Garber Tournament, Davie got a big 43-34 win over rival Mt. Tabor. A story on Davie’s showing in the Garber will come next week.

Davie 56, Carson 36 – Ashlyn Hampton 21, Emma Slabach 14, Madison Zaferatos 13, Patterson Jones 4, Caitlyn Peebles 4.