It wasn’t Hoosiers. It wasn’t Glory Road.
Heck, it wasn’t even The Sixth Man.
In the end, what it was was an Orange victory on a night of the strange.
Jason Franklin’s lay-in with 2:59 remaining in overtime lifted the Panthers to a 35-32 over East Chapel Hill on Thursday night at Panther Gymnasium in Hillsborough.
“Jason knows that’s his time,” said Orange coach Derryl Britt. “He’s the guy who should have the ball at that time. We talked about having the best players close games out. We’ve had close games were we’ve had to learn how to win. That’s coach speak, but it’s the truth.”
With Orange clinging to a 33-32 lead, the Panthers’ J.J. Thompson intercepted an East pass and was fouled. Thompson drained the subsequent foul shots, his only points of the game.
East Chapel Hill (8-3, 7-0), which has already clinched the Big 8 regular season championship, was led by Will Tyndall’s 15 points.
Franklin finished with 13 points for Orange (2-8, 1-6).
Going into the fourth quarter, the Panthers were lethargic offensively, but they weren’t alone. East led 21-17 going into the fourth quarter. Orange, which relies on the outside shot for most of its offense, sank only two three-pointers in the first three quarters.
East Chapel Hill led 29-22 with 3:53 after a 3-point play by Tyndall and a steal and score from Isaiah Roberson. That was East’s final field goal of the game.
The Panthers cold offense finally found its rhythm when Thompson rattled in a 3-pointer with 3:23 remaining in regulation. On East’s next possession, Kyle Stanley tied up Tyndall for a held-ball, which sent the ball back to Orange. Thompson nailed another 3-pointer to reduce East’s lead to 29-28.
After East was called for traveling, Orange missed on its next possession. Franklin made a huge steal to give the Panthers’ the ball back, then fired a 3-pointer that was a knuckleball that took a dead bounce of the heel of the rim and flatly fell through the net to put Orange ahead 31-29. It was the Panthers’ first lead since it was 2-1.
Charles Stanley sank two free throws to even the game at 31. Orange couldn’t get a shot off on its final possession, which led to a 4-minute overtime.
There was a moment of comedy early in the extra session. After Franklin’s opening field goal, Orange forced a turnover on East’s first possession. Britt asked his scorekeeper “How many timeouts do I have left?” The official trailing the play heard “time out” and immediately charged the timeout to Orange—its final timeout.
EAST CHAPEL HILL WOMEN 39, ORANGE 38
The East Chapel Hill women held off Orange 39-38, the third straight time the Wildcats won in Hillsborough.
Last Wednesday, when the Lady Panthers held off East by five points in Wildcats Gymnasium, the Wildcats had only five players in uniform. On Thursday, they had seven, but freshman center Laynie Smith made the biggest different.
Smith scored 16 points, including 14 in the second half. She knocked down two 3-pointers in the third quarter to put East ahead to stay.
In a bizarre final minute, Orange’s Aaliyah Harris knocked down two 3-pointers to narrow the deficit to 39-38. Orange fouled Abby Stone with 2.2 seconds remaining. On the front end of a 1-and-1, Stone took too long at the foul line and was called for a 10-second violation.
Then things got really weird.
With Orange trailing 39-38, Harris was set to inbounds when East’s Shariah Wells knocked down Orange’s Jarmil Wingate. Wells was whistled for a foul. Orange coach B.J. Condron thought Wingate would go to the foul line since it was East’s eighth team foul. Instead, Orange was ordered to take the ball out of bounds, which led to Harris missing a desperation heave at the buzzer from midcoast.
Afterwards, the officials admitted (under light questioning from a curious Condron) that they erroneously thought that East was in possession of the ball when Wingate was fouled, when it was really Orange inbounding the ball.
Harris scored 14 to lead Orange, who will face Chapel Hill at Smith Middle School on Friday night. Erin Jordan-Cornell had 12 for the Lady Panthers.
ORANGE 35, EAST CHAPEL HILL 32 OT
EAST CHAPEL HILL: Dillon McCafferty 3, Will Tyndall 15, Isaiah Roberson 3, Jerrod Meltzer 5, Nathaniel Stone 1, Charles Stanley 4, Jabari Best 1.
ORANGE: Jerec Thompson 14, Jason Franklin 13, J.J. Thompson 2, Kyle Stanley 2, Devin Corbett 2.
WOMEN
EAST CHAPEL HILL 39, ORANGE 38
EAST CHAPEL HILL: Riley Ellis 10, Laynie Smith 18, Abby Stone 9, Gabby Sielken 2.
ORANGE: Aaliyah Harris 14, Samantha George 4, Erin Jordan-Cornell 13, Jarmil Wingate 2, Katelyn Van Mater 2, Jada Reed 3.