Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Brian Pitts
Enterprise Record

Draeton Nance put on a show in the Davie JV boys basketball team’s first test of the year.
Before the War Eagles rose to 3-0, they hardly broke a sweat in a 72-21 home win over North Iredell on Nov. 26. It was the second breezy outing after Davie opened with a 43-point win over Alexander Central.
Eight different War Eagles put up points during a 24-3 first quarter, and 13 guys wound up in the scoring column. No one was better than Aiden Horton, who drained 6 of 7 shots on the way to a team-high 12 points. Nance had 11. Noah Dulin and William Martin had seven each.
Davie 66, C. Davidson 56
The game at Central Davidson on Nov. 29 was a major step up in class, the Spartans holding a 22-game winning streak when Davie invaded their gym.
Davie’s foul trouble compounded things. Central led 13-10 at the end of the first quarter and 23-19 at halftime.
“We stayed in foul trouble pretty much the entire game,” coach Brandon Thalasinos said. “We battled through adversity and we battled through foul trouble. It was a really good test for us.”
Central scored the first three points of the fourth to take a 47-44 lead. Davie had its hands full, but Nance’s magnificent second half made the win possible.
After Nance drilled a 3-pointer, he assisted an inside bucket by Horton. Dulin grabbed a Central miss and threw an outlet to his brother Nance, who buried a 3. Martin drove and converted a reverse layup. Horton stole an inbounds pass and scored. Dulin drained an 18-footer. Dulin snatched a defensive rebound and threw ahead to Nance, who beat everybody down the floor and laid it in. Then Nance capped the 20-9 run with his sixth triple of the day.
Nance played like a dream, scoring 27 of his 33 points in the second half and shooting 11 of 17 overall and 6 of 9 from deep. It was the most points by a Davie JV male in 155 games, or nine years. Coleman Sell had 35 in a 70-66 loss at Reynolds in 2015-16.
“Draeton played phenomenal,” Thalasinos said. “There’s no hesitation, there’s no fear. He has 100 percent faith in his shot, and we needed every one of his buckets today.”
Horton was second with nine points. Martin contributed seven points and seven rebounds as Davie handed Central its first home loss since December of 2022.
“We did what we needed to do,” Thalasinos said. “It was a really good environment. They have a really good basketball program, but we stayed calm, played our game and found a way to win.”
The coach said Wyatt Harwood, Jayce Bentley, Cam Knox, Justin Haggler, Carter Cornett, Aiden Houser and Weston Barefoot deserve credit for doing little things that added up throughout the game.
“Wyatt came in and did things that might not necessarily show up in the stat line,” he said. “Justin got four big rebounds. Carter came off the bench and played big. Aiden played tough, bully ball under the boards. Weston only played about two minutes, but he gave Drae a chance to sit down when he got his fourth foul.”
Davie 72, N. Iredell 21 – Aiden Horton 12, Draeton Nance 11, Noah Dulin 7, William Martin 7, Jayce Bentley 6, Wyatt Harwood 6, Justin Haggler 5, Cam Knox 5, Ian Patton 4, Paxton Lewis 3, Carter Cornett 2, Weston Barefoot 2, Palmer Thomason 2.
Davie 66, C. Davidson 56 – Draeton Nance 33, Aiden Horton 9, William Martin 7, Noah Dulin 6, Justin Haggler 6, Jayce Bentley 3, Carter Cornett 2.