A combination of experience and youth served the Orange women’s basketball team very well two years ago.
In 2016-17, Coach B.J. Condron mixed seven seniors with four sophomores to produce a 26-2 season, the most successful season in modern team history.
Those sophomores from two years ago are now seniors, and they’re leading a team that’s regularly playing four freshmen, two of them starting. The experience gap may be unusual, but they’re getting results.
In their most impressive victory of the season, senior Icez Barnett scored 15 points and grabbed ten rebounds to lead Orange past Franklinton 55-48 on Friday night in the semifinals of the Granville Central Holiday Tournament.
The Lady Panthers will face Ravenscroft in Saturday’s night championship game. The Ravens (9-4) cruised past Vance Charter 52-33 in the nightcap.
Orange erased a 31-24 halftime deficit to end Franklinton’s eight-game winning streak.
Katherine Wilkins led the Rams (7-3) with 17 points, while Meaghan Dohnert had eleven. The Rams opened the game on a 7-2 run before Orange rattled off seven consecutive points. The game was tied 11-11 going into the second quarter.
Orange opened the second half on a 7-0 run, with Barnett factoring in on all the baskets. Lauren Cates, who finished with ten points and three steals, swiped the opening pass of the 2nd half and fed Barnett for the opening field goal. Cates hit a 3-pointer after senior center Kate Burgess grabbed an offensive rebound. Freshman Aaliyah Harris tied the game at 31-31 on a lay-in on a 2-on-1 break, courtesy of an assist from Cates.
As has been the case for much of the year, Barnett produced while also racking up fouls. She played most of the fourth quarter with four fouls.
Harris, who has been pressed into starting duty after an ankle injury to senior Grace Dively on December 14 against Lee County, finished with 12 points.
The Orange defense, which allowed 20 points in the 2nd quarter to the Rams, held Franklinton to 17 in the entire second half. The Lady Panthers forced 25 turnovers and came up with 16 steals, including five from freshman Jarmil Wingate.
There were seven lead changes in the third quarter, but Harris’ stickback basket with :23 remaining in the 3rd quarter started an 8-0 Orange run that put them in the lead for the rest of the game.
Barnett stated the 2nd half with a steal off full-court pressure and scored on a coast-to-coast layup. After Cates fed Wingate for a lay-in, Orange pushed its lead to 45-39 with 6:25 remaining. Franklinton’s Rebekah Smith, who registered six points and eleven rebounds, scored after grabbing her own rebound to cut the Lady Panther lead to 50-48 with 2:48 left. Franklinton had a chance to tie with 1:27 remaining, but Smith missed a short jumper. Grace Andrews grabbed the rebound and, after an Orange timeout, scored her only points off a ten-foot jumper set up by Barnett, which put the game away.
If Orange can defeat Ravenscroft for the tournament championship, it will serve as a good omen. The last time Orange won a holiday tournament, it came in the 2016 Eastern Alamance Holiday Hoops tournament in Mebane. The Lady Panthers went on to win the Big 8 regular season and tournament championships.
