Davie’s varsity boys basketball team has high hopes for 2017-18 and will be disappointed if it doesn’t contend for a conference championship.

Rockingham County went 4-20 last year, and every season between 2007 and 2017 has ended with a losing record.

Thus everyone saw this coming, a 67-55 Davie road win in the season opener on Nov. 20.

“We played really well,” coach Mike Absher said.

The 3-A Cougars were never completely blown out because of Davie’s subpar shooting. But they never threatened to upset the War Eagles either.

“We executed much better than 67 points,” Absher said. “That was kind of the frustrating thing. We missed some shots when we had good looks.”

Michael Walton (21 points, one from his varsity career high) and Owen McCormack (20 points, six from his varsity career high) were too much for Rockingham to handle. Those two along with Cooper Wall and Troy Griggs scored at least four points during a 22-13 opening quarter.

“We were really, really sharp on offense (in the first),” he said. “We did a good job of getting the ball inside to Owen. We made a concerted effort to try to get him involved early, and he had a three-point play to set the tone. He had a great give-and-go to Troy for the first basket of the night. He had several putbacks.

“(Walton) made some 3s early, which was good for his confidence. In the second half, he did a good job of getting to the rim. He was tough on defense, too. Man, he guarded really well.”

The War Eagles led 30-21 at the half and 48-34 after three. Wall was the third Davie player in double figures with 14 points. Absher said Wall and Griggs were rock solid on defense and Jacob Hendrix and McCormack were the top rebounders.

“Coop did a great job defensively,” he said. “Troy did too. (Wall, Griggs and Walton) were causing havoc around the perimeter.”

Hendrix (six points), Griggs (four) and Brooks Johnson (two) rounded out Davie’s scoring.

“Brooks was a spark when he came in in the second half,” he said. “He rebounded really well.”

Notes: The Davie basketball teams would like to invite all former players, coaches, managers, trainers and cheerleaders to the first home game at the new school on Friday. The varsity girls will tip off at 6 p.m., with the boys following at approximately 7:30. … The Martin twins have been golden additions at Nevada. The transfers haven’t just contributed – they’ve dominated to help the Wolf Pack to 6-0. Caleb Martin is first with a 19.3 scoring average, and he’s also averaging 5.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 29.5 minutes per game. Cody Martin is third in scoring (15.2), second in rebounding (6.5), second in assists (3.3) and first in steals (2.2) while playing 36.2 minutes per game.