By Dylan Branscome
February 12, 2025 – The Davidson-Davie STORM cruised to another home Region 10 victory, 117-75, against the Louisburg Hurricanes on Wednesday night. They improve to 13-1 in conference play and 22-2 overall.
Davidson was led by six players scoring double digits, including Lamonte Cousar (24 points), Ethan English (16 points), Will Gray (16 points), Dane Stewart (11 points, 5 steals), Jaylen Wilkerson (11 points), and Jamaal Chrisp (11 points).
The STORM also shot very efficiently during the game, shooting 62.1% from the field and 47.1% from three. They also forced 27 turnovers and scored 40 points off of those turnovers alone, showing their dominance on both sides of the court.
The dominance started early as well. Davidson was leading the Hurricanes at halftime 52-29, due to the incredible defensive efforts from the STORM.
“I was really proud of how we defended,” head coach Matt Ridge said at halftime. “We’ve got to contain penetration because these guys like to drive, and they have shooters. But if we continue to stay humble mentally, we’ll come out with a hungry mentality and have a great attitude defensively.”
Cousar dominated inside as STORM fans are accustomed to at this point in the season. He scored 18 of his 24 in the first half alone, and the Hurricanes just had no answer for Davidson’s leading scorer.
While the first half felt much more like a physical contest with many points in the paint being scored by both teams, the STORM started to shoot it confidently from outside the arc more often in the second half. While they shot 20% from three in the first half, they exponentially increased that percentage up to 85.7% to help increase the already sizeable lead on Louisburg. Kobe Parker kicked it off with two threes quickly, and then Wilkerson, Gray, and even Aden Taylor followed suit. Davidson outscored the Hurricanes 65-46 in the second half, largely in part to the three-point shooting improvement.
While the divide between Points off Turnovers from both teams is impressive, with Davidson having 40 compared to Louisburg’s 13, the more eye-opening stat that continues the long-running theme of this season is the bench points. The STORM scored 68 of their points off of the bench, compared to the Hurricanes scoring 26.
“We feel like we’ve got about eight, nine, maybe even 10 guys that could start on most teams in our league,” Ridge said post-game. “We do think that is one of our strengths most years and we try to recruit based on that. Really proud of those guys who came off the bench and played at a high level.”
The STORM return to action on the road against another Region 10 opponent, the Bryant & Stratton Bobcats, on February 16 at 3:30 PM EST.