At the turn of the year, the Orange men’s basketball team essentially started over.
Center Machai Holt was dismissed from the team on January 3 after a sensational start to the season. He was Orange’s leading rebounder and was the spark plug behind a 7-1 start, the best stretch of Panther basketball since winning the Big 8 regular season championship in 2016-17.
Holt’s teammates learned of his departure mere hours before a long road trip to Vance County. Many of his classmates had played with Holt since they were in 5th grade and were stunned. That shock carried over to the court, where the Vipers romped to a 31-3 lead and cruised to a 74-57 win.
Without Holt, they were a different team. After a disappointing homestand where the Panthers lost three consecutive games last week, the new version of Orange can say definitively they’re making progress after upsetting Chapel Hill earlier this week.
Though Southern Durham defeated Orange 88-70 on Friday night at Spartan Gymnasium, the Panthers fought all the way against a more talented and experienced group led by former Orange Coach Greg Motley. Spartan senior Ricky Council, who is being recruited by Cincinnati, UNC Greensboro and Elon, scored 28 points to lead the Spartans (10-3, 4-1 in the Big 8 Conference). Ahmad Hamilton added 26, including 14 points in the third quarter.
Unlike losses to Vance County and Northwood, Orange didn’t back down despite a barrage of highlight reel ally-oops and 3-pointers from Southern. Joey McMullin scored 24 points while junior Jason Franklin added 21. It was Franklin’s highest total since he scored 27 against Southern Alamance on December 6 in Graham.
The Spartans hit ten 3-pointers in the first half, yet Orange only trailed 26-20 at the end of the first quarter. McMullin scored nine points in the second quarter to keep things close, but Southern’s T.J. Richardson had 11 of his 15 points in the 2nd to help the Spartans build a 15-point halftime lead.
Orange junior Kyle Stanley had a career-high 12 points, and likely would have had more if it hadn’t collected three fouls by the 6:08 mark of the second quarter. Without Holt and Stanley, the Panthers didn’t have any rim protectors and the Spartans had open season along the offensive glass.
None of which was lost on Orange coach Derryl Britt, who wasn’t discouraged by his team’s performance.
“I was really happy with the effort,” Britt said. “The guys fought. We didn’t stop playing. We knew what we were coming into. Southern’s really athletic, they have one of the best players in the state. And he’s surrounded by some pretty good basketball players. It was good to see our guys fight and execute against a quality basketball team.”
It is Southern’s seventh straight win over Orange. The Panthers last defeated the Spartans on Connor Crabtree’s running-one hander with :05 remaining to win 80-79 on January 27, 2017.
Orange is now halfway through its conference schedule, one that started with a 50-point win over East Chapel Hill. But that was the old Orange team, and glances backward will only lead to steps backward at this point. McMullin, a senior, hasn’t been to the state playoffs since his freshman year when Orange advanced to the state quarterfinals. No one else on the team has sniffed the state playoffs.
They will work the next three weeks trying to get there. Orange enters a week off and won’t take the floor again until they face the same East Chapel Hill team next Friday, one that won’t forget what happened to them before Christmas.
Britt just wants to keep building.
“We know we’re trying to get back to playing a brand of basketball that’s going to work for us,” Britt said. “Some teams are more physical than us, and Southern is one of them. There are some things we could have done better tonight. We will bounce back and we’re so looking forward to next week.”
SOUTHERN DURHAM 88, ORANGE 70
ORANGE: J.J. Thompson 4, Jason Franklin 21, Kyle Stanley 12, Joey McMullin 24, Hunter Birch 2, Tucker Miller 2, Kendrell Brooks 5.
SOUTHERN DURHAM: T.J. Richardson 15, Ricky Council 28, Ahmad Hamilton 26, Xavier Sorenson 10, Jaybron Harvey 2, Alex Phelps 5, Todd Wall 2.