November 9, 2024 – The Davidson-Davie STORM cruise to a home win over Division One JUCO Demark Technical College Panthers, 102-71, rallying behind Lamonte Cousar’s double-double (29 points, 10 rebounds) and a team free-throw percentage of 80% on 46 attempts.
The game started slow defensively for Davidson-Davie, as the Panthers were able to break out to a quick lead because of their three-point shooters. Cousar’s outstanding night started early, as an early three and finishing around the rim was keeping the STORM in the game. Davidson-Davie were causing turnovers early still, and one of them led to an and-one layup from Dane Stewart to take the lead with ten minutes to go in the half.
Davidson-Davie was finally able to get some breathing room with three minutes to go when Aden Taylor got one of his three steals, leading to a powerful slam from Cousar to go up by ten, making Brinkley Gym explode. Coach Matt Ridge explained his thoughts on the burst of defensive urgency in a halftime interview. “I was proud we got out during that stretch and got some deflections and steals and easy buckets in transition,” Ridge said, “but we got to be more consistent with it.” The STORM finished off the half up 43-34.
Davidson-Davie came out running and never looked back for the second half, outscoring the Panthers 59-37. Overall, Denmark Tech had 24 turnovers, and the STORM scored 34 points off of those turnovers, which Ridge contributes the efficiency to the players “playing with more grit, toughness, and a sense of urgency.” The majority of those points came in an exciting second half. Brinkley Gym was rocking as Jaylen Roberts had a thunderous dunk off of a turnover, then Will Gray had a nifty spin move for an easy layup, and Cousar capped off the electric sequence with a putback dunk off of a missed layup. All of a sudden, Davidson-Davie was up 25 points in the first six minutes of the half, and there was a point where they were almost up by 40 later on.
Some other highlights in the second half included Dane Stewart flying to block a fast-break layup, which led to Javier Ortiz getting the STORM another dunk. Corion Marshall also got a highlight of his own, blocking a dunk on one side of the court, then getting a tough finish at the rim on the other. Overall, Davidson-Davie kept their defensive pressure high and continued to make efficient shots and convert free throws to get the win.
While the STORM wasn’t very effective from three (25%), they were effective in overall field goal percentage (45.5%) and free throw percentage (80.4%).
The STORM returns to action on the road against another Division One JUCO, the Wake Technical Community College Eagles, in Raleigh, NC on Wednesday, November 13 at 6:00 PM EST.