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By Brian Pitts

Enterprise Record

Lindsey Adams’ girls have ascended from doormat to contender, and now opportunity is practically knocking the door down.

The War Eagles went 3-9 in Adams’ first season as the Davie girls basketball coach, which was three more wins than they had the year before. They crawled out of the wilderness in 2021-22, going 9-14. They kept the trend going with a 13-13 finish in 2022-23.

They increased their win total for the fourth consecutive year in 2023-24 by going 16-12. It marked the most wins in seven years and the best Central Piedmont Conference finish (third place) in seven years. They reached the CPC Tournament championship game for the first time in 21 years.

But the best is yet to come. Malayka Rankin, who led Davie in scoring at 10.3 per game, and Peyton Spaugh (7.7) graduated, but everybody else will be back. Considering there won’t be a senior on the 2024-25 squad, the future feels almost limitless.

“If the stars align, I think we can win the CPC this year,” said Adams, who is trying to guide Davie to its first league title since 2003. “A lot of the top CPC players graduated. Our nonconference games are going to be a lot tougher. We’re playing Northern Guilford (which beat Davie in the first round of the playoffs the past two years) and Watauga, two top teams in the state, to hopefully prepare us to make a run in the state playoffs.”

Davie has added quite a bit of momentum during the offseason.

“We went to Davidson, we went to (UNC) Wilmington, we went to Queens and we went to the North Meck scrimmages,” Adams said. “Those freshmen held their own (last) year on varsity, but when they went back to playing against their age division for AAU in the spring, most of them were dominating. It was a lot easier because they weren’t playing against 17 and 18 year olds; they’re playing 15 year olds.”

Adams will have seven varsity returners next season.

Avarie Martin is the top returning scorer after averaging 8.7 as a freshman. “Avarie has come a long ways,” Adams said. “She has a lot of D-I interest because of her athleticism. In the offseason, she’s gained weight and muscle mass. Now she’s playing up with 16 and 17 year olds on an AAU team, and she’s performing very well. I look for her to be our leading scorer this year.”

Bailey Aderhold averaged 8.2 points as a sophomore, Emmie Burris averaged 7.8 as a freshman and Madison Daugherty averaged 6.2 as a freshman.

“Bailey’s shot is looking a lot better,” she said. “She’s been hitting more consistently. I told her we need you to be 30-35 percent 3-point shooter. We’re able to get her shot off because we have Avarie, Emmie, Makenzie Gentry and Gracie Shore, and all of them are scoring threats.

“Emmie played AAU with us and she hit two game-winners over the summer. She hit one at Wilmington team camp. She has that ice in her veins.

“Madison’s confidence and leadership have come a long way. She’s very vocal. She knows what my expectations are. We don’t have any rising seniors and I didn’t know how the leadership aspect would go, but Madison and Vivian have picked that up, along with Londyn. Those three are kind of our vocal leaders when I need somebody to get the team where they need to be or communicate with them.”

Makenzie Gentry missed her entire freshman season and the first 20 games of her sophomore season with knee injuries. But all that adversity and misery is in the rearview mirror now.

“She’s shooting the ball like she never (missed a year and a half),” Adams said. “She has no fear. You’d think somebody coming off two injuries would favor their knee and have some fear, but she has zero fear. Her spark, intensity and quickness is something that can’t be matched by the other players.”

Vivian Vaughters had a 10-point, 10-rebound game as a freshman. Londyn McDowell put together an 11-point, seven-rebound, 5-for-5 shooting game as a freshman.

“You can always county on Vivian’s defense and energy to be there,” she said. “She’s one of our main vocal leaders, and her offense has come a very, very long way. When she’s able to chip in 8-10 points helps us so much.

“Londyn played AAU for me and coach (Debbie) Evans this spring, and she’s been working with a trainer to develop her post moves. Her confidence and IQ of the game have taken her a long ways. Teams can’t really go zone on us because we’ll shoot the 3 or give it to Avarie at the high post, and Avarie and Londyn work very well together at the high post and short corner.”

A transfer has only added to the sky-high expectations. Lexie Mickey, the sister of rising senior Bryson Mickey of the Davie boys, has come over from Calvary.

“She has a very high basketball IQ,” she said. “I think her and Emmie play very similar. She played all summer with us and she’s another (scoring) threat.”

It’s hard to imagine Davie’s upward trajectory slowing down anytime soon because of the incoming freshmen. Gracie Shore, Gracyn Coleman and Olivia Smith were the primary weapons for the Ellis team that went 17-0 last winter.

“Gracie was the starting point guard all summer,” Adams said. “She’s definitely got the basketball IQ and the talent. A lot of her turnovers came from just being a second or two behind. It was a perfect idea, it was the right idea. She still drives with confidence just like she did in middle school. She averaged 9-11 points a game for us, which is not bad for a rising freshman, and she also averaged five or six assists.

“Gracyn’s an athlete, super intense, looking to fill Peyton Spaugh’s shoes with defensive effort.

“It’s an adjustment for (Olivia) with the physicality and pace, but you can’t leave her open on the 3-point line because that’s what she does. She has very high offensive IQ and she can pick a defense apart. We’ve got to continue to work on her defense at the varsity level because I want to play man to man.”