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By Brian Pitts
Enterprise Record

It’s hard to overstate the importance of Noah Dulin to the South Davie boys basketball team. The Tigers went 0-3 between Dec. 7-10 when Dulin was on the shelf. With Dulin back on the floor, they beat Ellis 58-51 and rallied to a 52-49 win at Canterbury on Dec. 15.
Coach Germain Mayfield raved about the sixth-grade guard who scored a season-high 19 points at Canterbury to lift South’s record to 4-3. “He’s not the most skilled, but he understands the game,” Mayfield said. “Not having him (against Wesleyan, NCLA and High Point Christian), we were lost. He has his share of turnovers, but we don’t turn it over nearly as much, we get better shots and our defense is better because he’s so active.”
Dulin’s season high before Canterbury was 6. Talk about raising offensive game to another level. “I’ve been trying to get him to be more aggressive all year,” Mayfield said. “I guess he knew the situation we were in (missing leading scorer Josiah Spillman, Jayce Bentley and Jayden Warren). I told him: ‘Dude, you’re going to have to start getting up more shots. You shoot it too well not to.’”
After taking a lead in the first quarter, South was outscored 14-3 in the second quarter and faced a 22-16 halftime deficit. It was 35-35 going into the fourth.
The Tigers took the lead for good with three minutes left, led by six with 19 seconds remaining and walked away with the win. AJ Imes and Dallas Simms played major roles with 14 and 12 points.
“We didn’t score on the best play we made,” he said, pointing to Simms. “Dallas got the ball in transition. He crossed over and made a great move to get to the middle of the lane. He gave a little bounce pass (that was fumbled out of bounds).”
Brady Everhardt and Brayden Kistner chipped in 5 and 2 points, respectively.
Wesleyan 61, ND 42
Although North Davie remained winless after a home game against Wesleyan Christian Academy onDec. 13, coach Trevor Gooch saw encouraging things. The Wildcats were only down 22-18 at halftime. They were only down by 10 after the third against an opponent that would improve to 3-0 against Davie teams later in the week. Draeton Nance, who played his second game after missing the first three, had 14 points, 5 assists and 3 steals. Isaac Swisher pounded out a double-double (11 points, 15 rebounds).
“We talked a lot in pregame about getting off to a good start,” Gooch said. “We played hard and every game seem to improve. Draeton, who had been out due to a football injury, did a great job of playing the point. He made some nice baskets by driving and drained two 3-pointers. He also led our team in assists and steals. Isaac keeps improving in the paint.”
North’s other points came from Jackson Sulecki (7), Ian Patton (3), Ty Greene (3), Ethan Lakey (2) and Wyatt Harwood (2).

ND 57, Summit 29
After losing five games, all by at least 13 points, the Wildcats found a well-deserved reprieve at Summit on Dec. 16.
North rolled to a 28-12 halftime lead and extended the margin in the third. Edarius Oliver came from nowhere to score 14 team-high points. Swisher had another double-double (10 points, 12 boards), giving him 51 rebounds across four games. Sulecki scored 10.
“It was really great to get a win before the winter break,” Gooch said. “Our kids have been working hard and tonight they showed a lot of improvement, especially in our defensive pressure and transition offense.
“Edarius is our best player with defensive pressure, and he did a great job of scoring in transition. Isaac had a nice game in the post.”
Ten Wildcats scored, including Nance (5), Harwood (5), Patton (4), Andrew Young (4), Greene (2), Lakey (2) and Reynolds Tomlinson (1).
Wesleyan 44, Ellis 37
Ellis’ shooting struggles continued at Wesleyan on Dec. 16. While the Trojans hit 14 free throws, the Jaguars (3-3) missed 12 of 19 attempts and lost for the third time in four games.
They trimmed a 19-11 halftime deficit to 28-23 in the third, but couldn’t come all the way back.
“We missed too many free throws,” coach Ted Boger said. “Everyone has gone cold. Hopefully after a break we can get back to playing better.”
Ethan Driver had 11 points, Connor Dixson 8, Ben Reid 7, Jake Runge 4, Brady Vallance 4 and Braxton Bowling 3.