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By Brian Pitts
Enterprise Record

The Davie JV boys basketball team couldn’t have started any hotter at East Forsyth on Dec. 14.
The War Eagles blasted their way to a 15-point lead in the first half. They took their foot off East’s neck, the Eagles scoring 23 second-quarter points and tying the game at 27. Davie settled down in the second half, got great again and won 70-60.
“They started pressing us (in the second quarter) and we got rattled,” coach Tracey Arnold said. “At halftime I told the guys it wasn’t going to be easy. They weren’t just going to give it to us. We settled down and got the ball inside. We started working our high-low game (with Ian Koontz and Ethan Ratledge) and we went back in control of the game.”
Another factor: a triangle-and-two defense with Carter Helton and Braddock Coleman playing man-to-man with three teammates in a zone.
“I started switching up defenses,” Arnold said. “At the end of the game, I went to a triangle-and-two and that took their two best scorers out.”
After being unable to play in a 48-43 loss to Reynolds, Gavin Williams went off, scoring 25 points, hitting 3 of 4 3-pointers and controlling seven rebounds. It was the most points by a JV War Eagle in 44 games, dating to Luke Williams’ 27 in a 67-63 win over West Forsyth in January of 2019.
“Gavin scores so easily – he scores kind of like a Kevin Durant – you look up and don’t realize he’s put up that many points,” Arnold said after he raised his average to 19.4. “It comes in bunches.”
Carter Helton hit 4 of 7 3-point tries to score 14 as Davie posted its highest scoring total in 79 games. Koontz had nine points, 11 rebounds, three steals and two assists. Cam Ball had eight points. Ratledge had eight points, nine rebounds and three assists. Sebastian Bellomo had five points and Coleman one.
This was the most points for Davie since a 72-52 win over Forbush in February of 2017, when Brooks Johnson (18), Matt James (14) and Troy Griggs (10) scorched the nets.
Reagan 60, Davie 49
In Pfafftown on Dec. 17, the War Eagles took on an undefeated, rock-ribbed opponent and opened the game with laser focus, building a 27-19 lead at the half.
However, they ultimately found themselves on the wrong end of a dramatic turnaround. The Raiders, who misfired on every shot attempt from the arc in the first half, went on a 3-point spree in the second half and won going away.
While Reagan banged seven 3s and converted 7 of 8 free throws in the second half, Davie (5-2, 1-2 Central Piedmont Conference) jumped the rails.
Arnold was wondering what the heck just happened.
“We just hit the wall,” he said after Davie was outscored 41-22 in the second half. “We were getting all the shots we wanted. We just couldn’t make anything. We were missing layups and free throws.”
Koontz had 14 points, Helton 10, Coleman seven, Williams six, Bellomo five, Ball five and Ratledge two. Williams’ previous low was 12. Davie hurt itself by going 9-19 at the line.
“They kept shooting 3s even though they were up, giving us a chance to come back,” he said. “But we would go down and miss layups or point-blank shots. It got away from us and we couldn’t recover from it.”
The Raiders, who beat East Forsyth 72-63 and Glenn 55-52 in overtime, ran their records to 8-0, 3-0.