Within college and high school circles, this time of year is known as “crossover season.”
It’s when the end of football season bleeds into the start of basketball season. It’s often a grueling period for staff and players.
The games start to bunch together, leading to crowded weeks, work overload for gameday personnel and, inevitably, schedule changes for a variety of reasons.
Crossover season tinkered with the Orange basketball programs this week.
Thanks to some last minute planning from Orange men’s basketball coach Derryl Britt, the Panthers will open the year against Research Triangle High, a charter school based out of RTP. Tipoff will be Monday night at 6 PM inside Orange High Gymnasium.
This will be the only basketball game Monday night. The opener for the Orange women’s basketball team is still scheduled against Granville Central December 3 in Hillsborough.
The men’s game, which was finalized Friday afternoon after Britt and Raptors’ head coach Level Wallace were able to organize referees, wasn’t originally supposed to be Orange’s opener. The Panthers were slated to face Northern Guilford in Greensboro on November 22, which was also scheduled to be the Orange women’s basketball team’s season-opener.
Nighthawks officials canceled the doubleheader on Monday. The Northern Guilford football team hosted a 3AA State Football playoff game against Northwest Cabarrus on Friday night. Citing a conflict, Northern Guilford didn’t have enough personnel to handle a large crowd that would converge inside Nighthawk Stadium for a football playoff game and a basketball doubleheader at the adjacent gymnasium on the same night.
Northwest Cabarrus defeated Northern Guilford 56-35 on Friday night to advance to the 3AA State Quarterfinals.
The Nighthawks and the Panthers have played every year in men’s and women’s basketball since the Nighthawks men’s team defeated the Panthers in the 3A State Quarterfinals in 2016.
Aside from the transfer of starting point guard Mekai Collins, who returned to Cedar Ridge over the summer, the Panthers are slated to bring back everyone from last year’s 10-15 season.
That includes senior Joey Mcmullin, a starter since his freshman year who played alongside Connor Crabtree and Logan Vosburg in 2016-2017. Mcmullin saw action in 27 games for a team that finished 23-7 and won the Big 8 Regular Season Championship.
Last season, Mcmullin averaged 13.4 points per game and led the team with 49 3-pointers.
Collins was Orange’s leading scorer at 15.6 points per game. Senior Machai Holt, who just finished football season, was second on the team averaging 15 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.
There will also be an infusion of youth from last year’s junior varsity team, coached by Santina Ford. Several players, including 3-point ace Jerec Thompson, were called up to the varsity at midseason in time for the Eastern Guilford Holiday Tournament. Earlier this month, Thompson won the 3-point shootout during Orange’s 1st annul Season Tip-Off event on November 8.
Last season, Orange played three games before Thanksgiving, including victories over Union Pines and Granville Central. As of right now, Monday’s game against Research Triangle is slated to be the only game pre-Thanksgiving.
Like many charter schools that don’t offer football, Research Triangle started its season in mid-November. (Schools that play football weren’t allowed to start men’s basketball season until this past Monday). The Raptors are 3-0 after beating Cornerstone Charter Academy 71-35 in Greensboro on Friday.
The Raptors have won 23 games each of the past two seasons. Playing out of the 1A Central Tar Heel Conference, Research Triangle won the league championship last year. They suffered an overtime loss to Roxboro Community School in the opening round of the state playoffs.