Jones sparks key win
Published 9:11 am Thursday, February 18, 2016
It wasn’t hard to imagine Davie’s varsity girls basketball team beating Mt. Tabor. The War Eagles had already done that twice this season. It was hard to imagine Davie doing it a third time without the benefit of a double-figure scorer.
But that’s exactly what Davie did on the road on Feb. 9. It built a sizeable lead and settled for a 40-34 victory even though no one scored as much as nine points. Davie compensated by having six girls with six or eight.
“I bet you can’t find another CPC win where no one scored in double digits,” coach Dave Ruemenapp said. “I find that amazing. I wish our offense had been better – we were sluggish playing against their zone – but I do love the balance.”
While Tabor dropped to 11-12 overall and 5-7 in the Central Piedmont Conference, Davie (14-9, 7-4) bounced back from a dreary 67-47 loss to Reynolds.
Davie got an unexpected offensive boost from senior Patterson Jones, who keyed a game-breaking run in the third quarter. Tabor led 7-5 after the first, then Davie took a 15-14 lead into the locker room.
Jones, who came in averaging 2.9 points per game, stole the show in the third, scoring all eight of her points to lead a 16-7 run. The outburst matched her varsity high; she had eight last year against Central Davidson.
“Part of the reason we had such a hard time scoring was they had a bunch of people surrounding Ashlyn Hampton,” Ruemenapp said. “That opened up things outside, and Patterson stepped up. She hit three jumpers during the stretch when we pulled ahead. She missed a shot or two at the beginning, but it didn’t bother her. She shot the ball confidently. It was nice to see her shoot the ball with a lot of confidence, and she was solid on defense again.”
In the third, Madison Zaferatos, Hampton and Caitlyn Peebles provided points as Davie carved out a 31-21 lead.
In the fourth, Davie extended the run to 25-10. Emma Slabach’s 3-pointer early in the period made it 34-21, and Davie had a healthy 40-24 cushion with three minutes left.
It hardly mattered that Tabor ended the game with 10 unanswered points.
Hampton was limited to six field-goal attempts. She converted three of them, scored eight and blocked five shots before fouling out. Slabach scored six on 2-of-4 shooting from beyond the arc and added four steals. The rest of the team missed on 9 of 10 shots from long range. Zaferatos had six points to go with nine assists and just two turnovers. That’s an awful lot of assists in such a low-scoring game.
“Madison did such a good job of finding open people,” he said. “When we were able to make our run (in the third and fourth), we were able to get out and run and get our transition game going. And man, she threw some beautiful passes.”
Caitlyn Peebles scored six on 3-of-5 shooting, along with yanking down nine rebounds. That gave her 31 boards in three games. Aubriana Peebles contributed six points as Davie topped Tabor for the fourth straight time.
“Aubriana played really well,” he said. “They concentrated so much on Ashlyn and she got a couple key offensive rebounds and putbacks.”
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Davie had a cupcake in the final regular-season game, winning 64-17 at Parkland on Feb. 12. The attack was led by Hampton (13 points), Zaferatos (11), Jones (10), C. Peebles (10), Slabach (nine) and A. Peebles (eight).
At 15-9 and 8-4, Davie finished tied for third in the standings. West Forsyth and Reagan shared first place at 9-3. Reynolds and Davie shared third. Tabor went 5-7, North Davidson 3-9 and Parkland 0-12.
Now Davie is preparing for this week’s CPC Tournament and next week’s state playoffs. “I’m hoping we can get everybody aligned as we push on to (the postseason),” Ruemenapp said.
Davie 40, Tabor 34 – Patterson Jones 8, Ashlyn Hampton 8, Emma Slabach 6, Madison Zaferatos 6, Caitlyn Peebles 6, Aubriana Peebles 6.
Davie 64, Parkland 17 – Ashlyn Hampton 13, Madison Zaferatos 11, Patterson Jones 10, Caitlyn Peebles 10, Emma Slabach 9, Aubriana Peebles 8, Ze’mora Cockerham 2, Liz Crenshaw 1.