If Derryl Britt was exhausted while coaching Orange on Monday night, he didn’t show it.
He had every reason to be. By the time Orange’s game against Chapel Hill tipped off in Hillsborough, it had been well over 36 hours since he last slept. Ordinarily, he would have hit the sack around midnight on Sunday, but there was a more pressing matter.
His daughter Nakia went into labor pains.
“Daddy, I don’t know if we’re going to make it through the night,” Nakia said to her dad.
With her contractions growing more intense by the minute, Derryl rushed her daughter to Duke Regional Hospital.
“Her water hadn’t broken,” Britt said. “I stayed in the room until she started pushing. That’s when it was time for me to make my exit.”
By the next morning, Britt became a grandfather.
Braylen Naseim Britt was born at 6:41 Monday morning. He was named after former Michigan Wolverines wide receiver Braylon Edwards, though his first name isn’t spelled exactly the same way.
Britt had just enough time to get home around lunch before preparing for that night’s game against Chapel Hill, which is where a great day got better.
Joey McMullin, in his penultimate game in Hillsborough, scored 24 points as Orange defeated Chapel Hill 75-70. The Panthers (9-13, 3-9 in the Big 8 Conference) completed a season sweep of the Tigers and beat them for the third straight time.
Junior Jason Franklin added 21 as the Panthers climbed out of last place in the Big 8 Conference.
Chapel Hill (9-13, 4-8) tied the game late after a 3-pointer from Seth Morton. Orange came back when Jerec Thompson scored on a stickback shot off a missed jumper. McMullin knocked down key free throws down the stretch after the Panthers didn’t allow another field goal in the final five Tiger possessions.
As usual, Orange’s confidence grew early as they sank 3-pointers. McMullin went 4-from-10 from behind the arc. Franklin was 3-for-3, while Jerec Thompson knocked down a pair of treys.
Orange also finished 16-of-17 from the foul line to sew up only its second win since Christmas.
“Tonight, we executed as a team,” Britt said. “We executed the game plan. We stayed together as a unit. Nobody outside of the game plan. And I loved it. I love it when we play that way. We looked like a unit.”
McMullin and Tucker Miller, the only two seniors on Orange’s team, finished the game on the floor as the Panthers ran out the clock. At midseason, it appears a return to the state playoffs would be a certainty for both of them. Orange was 7-1 going and ranked #11 in 3A basketball by MaxPreps going into the South Granville Holiday Tournament. They were fresh off a 50-point win over East Chapel Hill in its Big 8 opener.
After senior Machai Holt was dismissed from the team on January 3, the Panthers lost eight of its next nine and sunk to the bottom of the league.
On Wednesday night, McMullin and Miller will play their final game in Hillsborough against Southern Durham, led by their former coach Greg Motley.
“It’s going to be tough for me and my boy Tucker,” McMullin said. “We’ve know Motley since we were in elementary School. He coached us. It’s going to be tough for me. It’s going to be tough.”
After he cleaned up the gym on Monday night, a bleary-eyed Britt rushed back to Durham Regional. He not only was a winning coach as he journeyed back up I-85.
He was now a grandfather.