Month: February 2020

This week’s Orange Panther of the Week is sophomore diver Stasz Zitko. On Friday morning, Zitko finished 3rd in the NCHSAA 3A State Diving Championships at Koury Natatorium at UNC-Chapel Hill. Zitko ended up with 391 points. Last week, Zitko became the first diver from Orange High ever to win a regional championship. At the Greensboro Aquatic Center, Zitko compiled 372.10 points to win the 3A Central Regional Championship. Zitko is the only diver for the Orange Men’s Swimming and Diving team. While his swimming colleagues train at the Orange County Sportsplex in Hillsborough, Zitko works out at Duke University. He has qualified for the 3A State Championships in both of his years at Orange. His goal before the end of his career is to win a state championship and earn a diving scholarship to a major university.

The first burst of severe weather this winter wasn’t a snowstorm. It was thunderstorms and high winds, which has led the Cedar Ridge and Orange basketball teams to reschedule its final home games.

Cedar Ridge’s game against East Chapel Hill, originally scheduled for Friday night, was rescheduled for Monday night at 7. The Red Wolves’ women’s basketball team will play at East Chapel Hill on Monday night at 7.

The Orange men’s basketball team not only had to adjust its game against Chapel Hill on Friday, but also its final home game of the year against Southern Durham.

The Panthers’ men’s basketball team will face Chapel Hill on Monday night at home at 7:30. The Orange women’s basketball team travels to Chapel Hill on Monday night.

Originally, the Orange men had its senior night game scheduled against Southern Durham on Tuesday. Now, the game has been rescheduled for Wednesday night at 7:30. The Orange women will also travel to Southern Durham on Wednesday.

The Orange men will conclude its regular season with a road trip to Northern Durham at Poe Gymtorium next Thursday. The Orange women will have its senior night game against the Lady Knights next Thursday, which will be the final home game for Lady Panthers senior Grace Andrews.

The Big 8 Conference Tournament will start February 17. All four basketball teams will be on the road for their respective first round games.

Orange’s Senior Night game will be the final home game for seniors Joey McMullin and Tucker Miller. It will be an unusual ending to an awkward season for McMullin, in particular. On the opposite sideline will be Southern coach Greg Motley, who was McMullin’s coach for his first two seasons at Orange. Motley, who coached Orange for 20 years before resigning at the end of the 2017-18 season, still teaches Economics at Orange and even has several current Panther players as his students. McMullen was one of them earlier this year, as was Orange’s starting point guard J.J. Thompson.

Of the four local teams, the Orange women have the best chance to make the state playoffs, despite a rash of injuries and losing four starters from last year. The Lady Panthers nearly turned the Big 8 Conference standings over on its ear on Thursday night, carrying league leader Northwood to overtime. The Chargers came away with a 51-44 victory, but only after Orange missed two free throws with three seconds remaining with the score tied at 44-44.

The Lady Panthers are 10-9, 4-7 in the Big 8 Conference.

While the Cedar Ridge men held its senior night ceremonies against Orange on January 31, Monday’s game against East Chapel Hill will be the official final home game for Mekai Collins, K.J. Barnes, Andrew Altieri, Jai’kel Gibbs, Zach Holmes, Grayson Ramos and Cameron Hartley. With a win, the Red Wolves would have its first three-game winning streak since early December 2016.

The Cedar Ridge men will conclude its regular season with a road trip to Southern Durham on Thursday.

For the third time in four years, there’s a chance the same school could win both the Big 8 men’s and women’s regular season championships. In the men’s standings, Northwood is 10-1, one game ahead of Southern Durham and Vance County. The Chargers end the year with road trips to Northern Durham and East Chapel Hill before finishing with a home game against Vance County. The Chargers defeated the Vipers 72-55 on January 21. Northwood and Southern Durham split their season series.

After escaping against Orange, Northwood leads the Big 8 Conference with a 10-1 record. Southern Durham, who lost both games to the Chargers, is 9-2.

Orange swept both basketball races in 2016-17. Hillside did it last year.

Schedule for the final week of the regular season:

Cedar Ridge men:

Monday: vs. East Chapel Hill in Hillsborough at 7.

Tuesday: at Vance County

Thursday: at Southern Durham

Cedar Ridge women:

Monday: at East Chapel Hill

Tuesday: at Vance County

Thursday: at Southern Durham

Orange men:

Monday: vs. Chapel Hill at 7:30

Wednesday: vs. Southern Durham 7:30

Thursday: at Northern Durham 7:30

Orange women:

Monday: at Chapel Hill

Wednesday: at Southern Durham

Thursday: vs. Northern Durham

This winter will be recorded as a time of change within local wrestling circles.

Not just because Chapel Hill ended Orange’s dynasty of 17 consecutive conference championships, but also for the revival of wrestling in western Hillsborough.

While the Stanback Middle School Bulldogs didn’t end Stanford’s string of dominance, the Bulldogs’ were competitive with the Chargers. Stanford defeated Stanback 47-46 at Bulldog Gymnasium on January 10 (the Chargers did forfeit its last two matches).

On the surface, that bodes well for Cedar Ridge in the future. Some, if not all, of the Stanback 8th graders will likely wind up wrestling for Scott Metcalf in the future.

As for the Red Wolves, Metcalf thought this would be a rebuilding season in October. Darius McLeod, who qualified for the 3A State Championships in 2019 at 132 pounds, graduated in June after winning 98 career matches.

Instead, this season has turned into a pleasant surprise. A freshman, Fernando Martinez, has posted 29 wins at 106 pounds with 13 pins and three major decisions. Martinez didn’t even start wrestling until two years ago.

The Red Wolves won its final four Big 8 Conference matches. The most thrilling came in its regular season finale against Southern Durham on January 29, which boiled down to the final match at Spartan Gymnasium. Trailing 35-33, Cedar Ridge’s Alex Davis defeated Zion Mcrae 14-8 at 138 pounds, which paved the way for a 36-35 Red Wolves’ victory.

It was the ultimate team win,” Metcalf said. “I couldn’t be more proud of them. I think the future is awfully bright for us especially considering what we have coming back and those coming up from the middle school ranks.”

Davis improved to 17-3 with eleven pins. As is so often the case in tight matches, Cedar Ridge won via bonus points. At 160 pounds, James Rosati-Brown pinned Kasiem Willis in 3:48. Rosati-Brown, who won the individual championship at 152 pounds in the Buccaneer Cup on January 11, ended the regular season 28-11 with 18 pins.

Ruffin Wyrick pinned Southern’s Daveyon Garner in 3:51 at 170 pounds. Wyrick goes into the Mideast Regionals with a 24-11 record with a team-high 20 pins. Alex Christian pinned Jadon Roger in 3:43 for his 21st victory.

At 113 pounds, Eh Tha, who played soccer for Cedar Ridge, pinned Demarion Garner in 4:58.

Daina Pritchard opened the night for the Red Wolves with a 11-4 decision over Thomas Johnson at 132 pounds. Pritchard is tied with Martinez for the team-lead with 29 wins this season.

“Something we had been preaching to them all year was the difference in tight dual matches is often simply getting pins and not giving up pins,” Metcalf said. “Against Southern Durham, that finally came too fruition. And its one thing us saying its another thing for them to experience it. So I think was a big step forward for our team and program.”

For its senior night on January 23, Cedar Ridge defeated East Chapel Hill and Vance County. The Red Wolves defeated the Wildcats 64-18, then defeated the Vipers 78-6.

This weekend, Cedar Ridge’s Kady Watkins will journey to Concord for the NCHSAA State Girls Tournament. Watkins, who won nine matches during the regular season competing at 120 pounds, was the first female wrestler in Hillsborough history to compete for a state championship last year in Winston-Salem. She went 1-2 in the 126 pound division, pinning Haley Shipes of West Mecklenburg in the consolation bracket in 2:30.

Once again, too many bonus points allowed cost the Orange wrestling team with its season on the line.

Union Pines scored four pins and two major decisions to defeat the Panthers 43-33 in the opening round of the NCHSAA 3A State Dual Playoffs on Tuesday night at Panther Gymnasium.

In the subsequent second round, Northern Guilford routed the Vikings 46-19 to move into the quarterfinals.

Orange, who lost to Chapel Hill last week with the Big 8 Conference championship on the line, had its earliest exit in the state playoffs since 2004, at least. Chapel Hill ended the Panthers’ string of 17 consecutive conference titles last Thursday. It was Orange’s first conference loss since 2003, when they fell to Riverside.

Union Pines led 25-3 after four matches. Orange’s only victory in that span came from Tayton Alvis at 145 pounds, who defeated Gabriel Robbins 10-7.

Orange’s Xavier Tinnen pinned Collin VanCleeve in 39 seconds to cut Orange’s deficit to 25-9, but Union Pines got a pin from Jaheem Uzzell in 4:58 to get the points back.

Orange senior Juan Navarro, in his final match inside Panther Gymnasium, pinned Kellen DeVries in 4:48. Navarro is 33-9 with 18 pins this season.

At 106 pounds, Orange freshman Dillon Heffernan earned a forfeit victory, but the Vikings scored pinfall wins from Johann Diaz and William Worley at 113 & 120 pounds, respectively, to pull off the win.

Kessel Summers and Matthew Smith-Breeden picked up forfeit wins after the Vikings ensured victory.

While Orange was knocked out, Chapel Hill advanced to the state quarterfinals for the first time in modern history. The Tigers will host Northern Guilford in the regional semifinals on Thursday night. The winner faces Wilson Fike or C.B. Aycock for the Eastern Regional Championship.

Orange finished the year 24-4, suffering as many losses this year as the previous three seasons combined. The Panthers went 28-2 last season and lost to Cape Fear in the 2nd round of the State Dual Playoffs. They upended Eden Morehead for its first win.

The wrestling team was the second squad from Orange to make the state playoffs this year. The Lady Panthers volleyball team lost to Clayton in the opening round of the state playoffs in October.

Orange and Cedar Ridge will now focus on the 3A Mideast Regionals at Cape Fear High School on February 14-15. The top four wrestlers from each weight class will qualify for the 3A State Championships, held at the Greensboro Coliseum starting on February 20.

Navarro will be one of the Panthers top hopes to reach Greensboro. Last season, he narrowly missed qualifying for the Mideast Regionals. In the consolation semifinals against Hillside’s Rodney Harris, which ended in a forced ride where Harris escaped and won 4-3.

Summers qualified for the state championships at 113 pounds. Last year at Southeast Guilford High, Summers pinned Shyheem Davis in 4:57. This season, Summers leads Orange with 36 wins and 22 pins.

Cedar Ridge’s Kady Watkins, who became the first female Hillsborough wrestler to compete for a state championship last year, will again be in the NCHSAA Girls State Tournament in Concord on Saturday morning. Watkins has seven wins with three pins this season.

Story by Tim Hackett

A lot can change in a month. Fewer than four weeks after the Cedar Ridge men scored 22 straight points en route to a rout and the Cedar Ridge women saw a potential game-tying three at the buzzer slip barely offline in a split with Northern Durham in Hillsborough, a lot changed Tuesday night in Durham. Last time, the Cedar Ridge men never trailed, put together a third quarter for the ages and won by 25; this time, they trailed by 15 early on in the second and needed an all-time clutch shot by a red-hot shooter to fall in just to force overtime and eventually eke out a win. Last time, neither Cedar Ridge nor Northern ever led by more than five before one star Knight ultimately took over; this time, that star Knight shone again, and Cedar Ridge never got going. And ultimately, even though a lot of things changed, two things remained the same: the Cedar Ridge men won and the women lost, resulting in a doubleheader split for the second time this season.

The Cedar Ridge men’s team certainly looked a lot different Tuesday than it did last month. With Mekai Collins and KJ Barnes unavailable for the first quarter (the Cedar Ridge coaches later revealed they had been suspended for deciding to miss practice earlier in the week) and Derrick Smith and Grayson Ramos unavailable for the entirety of the game, the Red Wolves were down four frequent starters. They were soon down 10-0 before James Ragland finally got the visitors on the board with a three with 2:07 left in the first – Cedar Ridge did not score otherwise and Northern led 14-3 after one. Collins and Barnes, suspensions lifted with the situation dire, entered the fray but could only watch as the Knights stretched their lead out to 21-8 midway through the second. Then Northern head coach Ronnie Russell called a timeout to set his defense, but it had the opposite effect: Cedar Ridge reeled off the final nine points of the period to pull within four at the halftime break at 21-17 – with every point coming courtesy of Ragland and Collins until a late three-point spurt by Grady Ray provided some balance.

Cedar Ridge is a tough team to figure out. Rookie head coach Jaison Brooks features a 16-man roster when it’s fully stocked, and he frequently rolls out 12 or more guys in any given game. But it’s always a guessing game as to which of those guys will step into a starring role. Mekai Collins nearly always is up to the task, and he’s more than good enough to keep the Red Wolves in contention on many nights, but he can rarely ever do it himself. Last time out against Orange, Chris Tinnen and Jai’kel Gibbs answered the bell with career games; in this game, they combined for three points. Players like Barnes, Ian Johnson and Cameron Harper have had their moments this season; on this night, they combined for two points on a field goal in the final minutes by Barnes. The Red Wolves needed someone else.

Enter Andrew Altieri. The senior lefty sharpshooter can be a streaky scorer, but on this night he was simply scorching. He got the start with all of the team’s absences but couldn’t crack the scoreboard in the first half, but that all changed as soon as he hit Cedar Ridge’s first shot of the second half, his patented right-wing lefty three-pointer. And he wasn’t close to done. He hit two more wing threes for his team’s next two buckets to cut their deficit to two as he and Luke Pagnanelli combined for seven second-half threes to flip the script and get Cedar Ridge back in the game.

But Derrien Hicklen was getting hot on the other side: his deep right-wing three, part of a 13-point second-half outburst, capped an 8-0 Knight run to put them ahead 52-47 in the fourth with time running out. After Pagnanelli hit a three and Collins hit a two to make it 53-52, it seemed like any hope of a Cedar Ridge comeback was snuffed as Jaylen Lee sprung Anthony Freeman with an over-the-shoulder pass for an easy bucket with 20 seconds left and a three-point lead. But the sharpshooters delivered: Altieri set up Pagnanelli for an open right corner three to tie, but it sprung off the rim – into the waiting hands of Altieri, who took one peek at the scoreboard, shifted back into the left corner, stepped back for a fadeaway three over the outstretched arm of the much-taller Lee and straight in for the tie with less than ten seconds left. Cedar Ridge could’ve won at the last gasp of regulation, but Barnes missed a free throw, sending Cedar Ridge to overtime for the first time this year. From there, it was little surprise that it was Altieri who delivered another three – his sixth of the game – and two clutch free throws for a career-high 20 points to steer the Red Wolves (6-14, 4-7 Big 8) to a 67-63 overtime win over the Knights (4-17, 2-9) and keep their incredibly slim playoff hopes intact.

Caitlin Lloyd owns Northern Durham. Unfortunately, Maya Hood owns just about everybody. Fresh off a 22-point showing against the Red Wolves in Hillsborough last month, the star Knight sophomore gashed Cedar Ridge for 23 more on Tuesday to lead Northern (7-11, 3-8 Big 8) to a 41-31 victory over Cedar Ridge (1-19, 0-11 Big 8) in Durham.

It was frankly a disappointing start for the Red Wolves after they played so well for three quarters on Senior Night last week against Orange and, more importantly, after they played so well for four quarters against Northern last month – Hood’s 18 second half points and Phoenix Smith’s buzzer-beater than was centimeters offline were the only reasons Cedar Ridge failed to win three weeks ago. But this time around they couldn’t stop Hood early, couldn’t convert their offensive chances, and couldn’t dig out of an early deficit. Cedar Ridge conceded ten of the final 11 points of the first quarter and ten of the final 12 of the second to fall behind 25-10 at the break, and better team defense in the second half capped by an 8-0 surge in the game’s final minutes made the scoreline closer than it was.

But, as usual, the Red Wolves produced plenty of highlights. Angelica Carbajal drained a three for her first field goal of the season. Tori Dalehite erupted for ten fourth-quarter points, showing off her shot-making ability and persistence in the face of a slow start to give her a team-high 11 points. And Caitlyn Lloyd exploited Northern’s often nonexistent post defense en route to a ten-point showing, her first career double-digit outing. She scored five field goals, at least one in every quarter, flashed some range and some shot-making of her own, and won multiple offensive boards for her team. The road ahead for the Cedar Ridge women is rough indeed with three of the conference’s best on tap, all on the road, but on this night this team once again proved that even if they go down, it won’t be without a fight.

The Cedar Ridge men’s basketball team defeated Northern Durham 67-63 in overtime at Poe Gymtorium on Tuesday night. Andrew Altieri hit six 3-points for the Red Wolves and finished with a career-high 20 points. Cedar Ridge won its sixth game, more than its previous two seasons combined. They also completed a season sweep of Northern Durham. Cedar Ridge played without Derrick Smith and Grayson Ramos. James Ragland, Mekai Collins and Grady Ray scored all 20 of the Red Wolves points in the first half. Afterwards, Cedar Ridge Coach Jaison Brooks talked with Hillsboroughsports.com’s Jamir Graham. Cedar Ridge will host East Chapel Hill for its final home game of the year on Friday night at 7:30. You can hear the game on Hillsboroughsports.com starting at 7:25.

After winning five games in the previous two years, the Cedar Ridge men’s basketball team won its sixth game of the season on Tuesday night. The Red Wolves defeated Northern Durham in overtime at Poe Gymtorium in Durham. Red Wolves senior Andrew Altieri hit a critical shot in overtime to even the game. Afterwards, Altieri spoke with Hillsboroughsports.com’s Jmari Graham. Altieri has had a strong finish to his final season at Cedar Ridge. He helped the Red Wolves defeated crosstown rival Orange on Friday night, the first time Cedar Ridge swept the Panthers in the regular season since 2015. Cedar Ridge will look to continue its climb in the Big 8 Conference with its final home game against East Chapel Hill on Friday night in Hillsborough. You can hear that game on Hillsboroughsports.com starting at 7:30 with Tim Hackett and Jmari.