By Mike London

Salisbury Post

MOCKSVILLE — One of Davie County boys coach Mike Absher's favorite expressions after a tough loss is "Welcome to the CPC."

The Central Piedmont Conference, a 4A league that sent Chris Paul, Reyshawn Terry and Ilian Evtimov to the ACC not long ago, has been a tough road for rural schools such as Davie, who traditionally take their lumps from Forsyth squads.

Absher is a coach whose passion for hoops burns more inside than outside, but he probably felt like stomping around like Bobby Knight, kissing babies and howling at the moon after a surprising 82-71 smackdown of visiting North Forsyth on Wednesday.

Drew Absher had 22 points to lead the War Eagles, while Darius Hall had 15, all in the first half. Matt Vanhoy scored 13, including 10 in the third quarter.

Davie's gameplan was to make North Forsyth shooter Gabriel Lowder put the ball on the floor, and it worked until the final minutes. Lowder had a closing flurry of 3-pointers to finish with 24 points.

No one without a crystal ball saw it coming. Davie had lost 18 straight to CPC foes (16 in the regular season, plus a pair of one-and-dones in the league tournament). Many Davie players had never won a CPC varsity game.

"It's a great win for us, huge," Mike Absher said. "We started out with defensive intensity, we executed on offense and we got people open to shoot the ball. And then we made the shots."

The CPC gets four playoff berths, and an 0-3 start would have put Davie (9-8, 1-2) in bad shape. Instead, it's tied for fourth with North Forsyth (7-10, 1-2).

Davie shot the lights out — 61 percent in the first half to take a 41-26 halftime lead, 8-for-13 in the third quarter to cruise out to a 20-point edge and 13-for-18 from the foul line in the fourth after the Vikings had to chase and foul.

Absher, a junior guard, scored 20 points in the fourth quarter of Davie's recent loss to R.J. Reynolds and stayed hot. He hit three quick jumpers — two of them 3s — to get a fire started. Then Hall took over in the paint. The 6-foot-6 senior made a lefty hook on his first attempt and never looked back.

"The biggest difference in the team tonight was Darius inside," Drew Absher said. "He showed up. He was a man in there. He hasn't had a game like this in a long time."

Davie was outrebounded badly by the Vikings in the first half, but Vanhoy, reserve Landon Harris and point guard Eric Lowery helped the War Eagles even up the boards in the third quarter. Even after Hall went to the pine with three fouls less early in the second half, Davie's lead kept growing. Vanhoy's four-point play one second before the third-quarter buzzer gave the War Eagles a 61-41 lead.

North Forsyth got as close as 70-60 with 2:18 remaining, but Absher, Lowery and James Mayfield were tough at the foul line down the stretch.

"We finally had a real good mixture on offense and we played good defense," Mike Absher said. "We got one we really needed."

Absher may even change his favorite expression to "Welcome to Mocksville."

NORTH FORSYTH (71) — Lowder 24, Walls 13, Hairston 9, McArthur 8, Jones 6, Hauser 5, Baldwin 4, Flanary 2, Tamer, Sawyer, Patterson.

DAVIE COUNTY (82) — Absher 22, Hall 15, Vanhoy 13, Harris 10, Mayfield 10, Lowery 8, Williams 4, Walls, Marion, Taylor.

North Forsyth 15 11 15 30 — 71

Davie County 23 18 20 21 — 82

Contact Mike London at 704-797-4259 or mlondon@salisburypost.com.