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By Brian Pitts
Enterprise Record

Davie’s JV boys basketball team was missing three starters for the Central Piedmont Conference opener against visiting Reynolds Dec. 10. Braddock Coleman had to come out early in the fourth quarter with a leg cramp and never returned. Davie missed 27 of 30 3-point tries.
The War Eagles almost kept their winning streak alive before losing 48-43.
Coach Tracey Arnold was among the quarantined. Freshman coaches Mike Dinkins and Cameron Phillips took over the reins with Arnold down.
The War Eagles were gliding high at 4-0 before they were hit by hard luck. The missing starters were Gavin Williams, Ian Koontz and Sebastian Bellomo. Williams is the top scorer with an 18-point average, and Koontz pulled down 19 rebounds over the past two games. Davie was also missing Trey’von Doulin.
“We pulled up all (12) freshmen,” Dinkins said.
In the first half, the patched up War Eagles were not fazed, taking a 29-20 lead to intermission.
They laid a second-half egg, missing all eight 3-point shots in the third, when Reynolds scored 16 to take a 36-35 lead.
“It was a helpless feeling because we were running our stuff,” Dinkins said. “I took two timeouts (in the third). I told Cameron at practice that with Gavin out, we were going to live or die by the 3. We only had one inside player (Cam Ball).”
After scoring 29 in the first half, Davie only managed 14 in the second.
Davie’s points came from Carter Helton (9), Ball (7), Ethan Ratledge (6), Connor Hood (6), Elijah Dillard (4), Luke Clark (3), Coleman (3), CJ Phelps (2) and Elliot Erlandsson (2).
Two guys off the freshman team contributed nicely. Hood “played extremely well,” Dinkins said, and Landon Waller ripped down eight rebounds.
Davie also did a good job against Reynolds’ 2-2-1 fullcourt press. Coleman and Clark were reliable with the ball in their hands, and Ball and Ratledge helped Davie get it across halfcourt.
“Reynolds should be one of the better JV teams with as much pressure as they put on the ball,” Dinkins said. “We knew it was coming and we knew how to beat it. They ended up getting out of it and going to a trap in the third quarter. Braddock and Luke did a good job. Luke had at least 4 assists. CJ got in there a couple of times, handled it well and didn’t turn it over. And we always had somebody in the middle (in Ball or Ratledge).”
But then “Braddock went down with a leg cramp at the start of the fourth and we lost him for the rest of the game,” he said. “He had several nice assists.”
Notes: The roster of the freshman team: Wade Bomar, Adam Brown, Erlandsson, Zachary Hill, Hood, Josiah Johnson, Cameron Owens, David Patton, Noah Shore, Logan Vanderweerd, Waller and Gage Whitaker. … Cancellations have made it frustrating for the freshmen. “We should have already played three games,” Dinkins said. “I’ve got a good group.”