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By Brian Pitts

Enterprise Record

After roaring out of the gate 5-0, Davie’s JV basketball team slipped dramatically last week. Losses to East Forsyth and Reagan  overshadowed Adam Brown’s impressive growth since last year.

It’s not often you see a JV team score 70 points in defeat, but that’s exactly what happened to Davie at East Forsyth on Dec. 13. The War Eagles had won 15 straight when hitting that number, but a 74-70 decision in Kernersville was Davie’s first loss when scoring 70 in eight seasons. The last such setback was 83-77 to Mt. Tabor in 2014-15.

The War Eagles got off to a slow start, but Brown, Wade Bomar and Cameron Owens led a 20-point second that vaulted Davie to a 28-26 halftime lead.

“East hadn’t been tested and they came out thinking they were going to blow us out,” coach Tracey Arnold said. “But we weathered the storm and then we came storming back. They knew they were in for a dogfight after that.”

Brown and Elliott Erlandsson teamed up for 14 points in the third, allowing Davie to take 46-43 lead into the fourth.

But the War Eagles spit the bit in the fourth. They got points from six different players (Brown, Owens, Ethan Driver, Thomas Essic, Erlandsson and Bomar) in the final quarter, but they gave up 31 to an East team that improved to 4-0 after winning its first three games by 26, 40 and 19.

“We missed some free throws and missed some 2-on-1 fast breaks,” Arnold said. “And they made a couple of big shots late. Every time we made a run, they made some big shots. We had some self-inflicted wounds (9 of 17 foul shooting coupled with costly turnovers).”

On top of that, Driver, Davie’s top rebounder on the day, fouled out with less than three minutes to go. “And that hurt,” he said. “I’d like to have had him down the stretch.”

Brown exhibited his growth with 23 points, eight rebounds, three assists and three 3-pointers. He matched his season high in points. Owens had 16 points and five assists. Erlandsson had 13 points and six rebounds.

“Adam had a real nice game,” he said. “Elliott shot it well in the second half. He really came on in the second half (with 10 points).”

Bomar had nine points, Isaac Swisher five, Driver two and Essic two. Driver also had nine boards. In the first half, Arnold got exactly what he needed from Bomar, who missed the first three games with a sickness.

“Wade’s just now rounding himself back into shape,” he said. “He played big minutes and kind of stabilized us because we had a bad start. Their pressure and crowd had us rattled. Wade came in and settled everything down. He plays bigger than what he is. He’s not the quickest or the fastest, but he’s a leader and they follow him. He’s a natural leader and a natural ballplayer. His basketball IQ is off the charts.”

Reagan 64, Davie 52

After getting doubled up in the first quarter (24-12 deficit) against visiting Reagan on Dec. 16, the War Eagles recovered and put up a good fight. They rallied within two, only to fade in the final minutes.

The good news: Brown put his improvement on display again. Last year he never scored more than 13 in a game and had single digits in eight of his nine games while playing for an 11-0 freshman team. This year he’s the No. 1 scorer with a 14.1 average. Against Reagan (5-1 overall), he scored 15 while hitting 5 of 7 field goals, including two 3s. He went 3 for 3 from the line, grabbed five rebounds, handed out four assists and made two steals.

Driver had 9 points and 6 rebounds. The other scorers for Davie (5-2, 1-2 CPC): Erlandsson 7, Swisher 4, Bomar 4, Owens 4, David Patton 4, George Sakai 3 and Logan Vandeweerd 2.