Month: February 2021

For the first time since 2016, the Cedar Ridge men’s basketball team is at .500 after eight game in a season. The Red Wolves defeated Northern Durham 55-52 on Tuesday night at Red Wolves Gymnasium. Sophomore forward Johntez Raspberry had a strong floor game with five points, four rebounds and four assists. Cedar Ridge completed a season sweep of the Knights. On January 15, Cedar Ridge defeated Northern Durham 49-34, a game where Raspberry had a season-high seven points, along with six rebounds and three blocks. The Red Wolves carried the momentum from Friday’s win over Orange and are now 4-4 on the season, 2-3 in the Big 8 Conference. Cedar Ridge will travel to Chapel Hill on Wednesday night for a rematch against the Tigers. Last week, Chapel Hill defeated the Red Wolves in Hillsborough.

Marvin Jones: The former Cedar Ridge star captured the high jump championship in this weekend’s Camel City Invite in Winston-Salem. Jones’ jump of 2.10 meters, two inches better than runner-up Tony Jones of Wake Forest. Jones matches his career-best leap. In four indoor events this season, Jones has now won the high jump twice and finished second twice. At the JDL January Kickoff in Winston-Salem, Jones had a jump of 2.06 meters, good enough for 1st place. UNC Pembroke’s Bradley Thompson finished second at 1.96 meters.

Jamar Davis: The 2018 Orange High graduate has started his junior season with the N.C. State track and field team. On January 16, Davis opened the indoor campaign with a fifth-place finish in the long jump at the Gamecock Opener at the University of South Carolina. His best jump was 23-feet, 7.25 inches. At the Hokie Invitational at Virginia Tech, Davis finished 6th with a leap of 7.08 meters.

Mia Davidson: As she starts her senior season at Mississippi State, Mia Davidson has been named a 2nd-team All-American by Justin’s World of Softball. A 2019 All-American, Davidson is a lifetime .369 hitter in Starkville. he holds Mississippi State’s career leading for home runs with 52, and slugging percentage at .789. In 2019, Davidson set the school and Southeastern Conference record with 26 home runs on her way to a school-record .882 slugging percentage.

Her junior season was limited to 21 games because of the pandemic. She hit .330 with a .659 slugging percentage.

Montana Davidson: Montana, Mia’s older sister, will return for her senior season with the Bulldogs. Mississippi State starts its season with a doubleheader against Miami (Ohio) on Friday.

Tori Dalehite: The former Big 8 Hitter of the Year will start her freshman season at UNC Greensboro on February 12. The Spartans face North Carolina at the Carolina Classic at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, S.C. During the three-day event, UNC-G will also face Louisville and South Carolina.

Grace Andrews: Fate has a funny way of working in college sports. In Grace Andrews’ first softball game at Catawba Valley Community College in Hickory, she faced Patrick Henry Community College, featuring Andrews’ longtime teammate at Orange, Jaden Hurdle. In fact, Hurdle and Andrews comprised the right side of Orange’s infield when they defeated Piedmont to win the 2017 3A State Championship. So naturally, for Andrews first at-bat for the Red Hawks, the pitcher she faced was Hurdle–in the 8th inning of a tie game. Andrews lifted a sacrifice fly to score Lillie Pennington as the Red Hawks won 4-3 in the opening game of the Catawba Valley Clash in Hickory.

In the second game, Catawba Valley defeated Surry Community Center 7-0. Andrews, playing shortstop, went 3-for-4 with two doubles, a triple and a run scored.

On January 30, the Montreat junior varsity defeated Catawba Valley 8-7 in eight innings in the opening day of a doubleheader. Andrews, starting at shortstop again, went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

In the second game, Catawba Valley shut out Cleveland Community College 9-0. Andrews went 0-for-1 with a walk.

Through four games, Andrews is hitting .500.

Wyatt Jones: The former Orange High midfielder and starting quarterback quietly made history over the weekend. Jones became the first Orange lacrosse player to play as a member of a Division I college team. The Mercer Bears defeated the Division II Lenoir-Rhyne Bears 17-4 at Five Star Stadium in Macon, Georgia. Jones entered the game as a reserve in the fourth quarter. Jones was named to the All-State team as Orange ended the 2020 campaign ranked #3 before it abruptly ended because of the pandemic. He was also a member of the Carolina Hilltoppers summer travel team coached by Franklin and Chandler Zirkle. On Saturday, Jones will sorta come home when Mercer faces #1 Duke at Koskinen Stadium in Durham.

Dylan Boyer: During the summer, Boyer signed with Division II Queens University in Charlotte men’s lacrosse. Boyer, who graduated from Orange in June, is slated to start his college career on February 20 when Queens travels to Mount Olive.

Jaylin Jones: A former Orange High midfielder and safety, Jones will start his senior season at Division II Pfeiffer men’s lacrosse on Saturday when the Falcons host Centenary.

Luke Hernandez: A former defenseman at Cedar Ridge, Hernandez will start his junior season with the Pfeiffer men’s lacrosse team, as well.

Aidan Poole: Last week, the Division III USA South Athletic Conference announced they will have a spring season, despite the pandemic. That means Poole, formerly of Cedar Ridge, will suit up for the Greensboro College Pride. Poole, a sophomore, played in seven games last season for Greensboro. He scored goals against Guilford and Chatham and recorded an assist against Hampton, which turned out to be the season-finale.

The Orange women’s basketball team is on a five-game winning streak following Saturday’s victory over Vance County in Henderson. Orange trailed the entire first half and could have been in a deeper hole if it wasn’t for forward Jala Rainey, who came off the bench to hit six free throws. Rainey is the only senior on Orange’s team. She’s been a part of a 19-win team in her sophomore season, when she played regularly around then-seniors Icez Barnett, Lauren Cates, Grace Dively and Kate Burgess. Now in her final year at Orange, Rainey is trying to get Orange to the 3A State Playoffs for the third straight season. On Tuesday night, Rainey will be honored during pregame of Orange’s contest against Northwood, who has already wrapped up the Big 8 Championship and is ranked #3 among 3A teams in the MaxPreps rankings. 

Through the grind of three games in three days, the theme for the Orange men’s basketball team has been to start hot, fade in the third quarter and fall short of the finish line with victory in sight.

It’s what led to an 0-7 start.

The pattern was broken on Saturday.

Jerec Thompson scored 16 points in the opening quarter, 23 in the first half and wound up with a career-high 32 as the Panthers (1-7, 1-6) defeated Vance County 65-62 on Saturday inside Viper Gymnasium.

The victory was Orange’s first in 357 days and ended an eight-game losing streak. Senior Jason Franklin added 23 points, including 16 in the second half.

“It feels good to get a win after a bad start,” Thompson said. “It feels really good right now. When you’re feeling it like that early, it feels like everything you shoot is going in.”

On Thursday against Southern Durham, Orange built a 15-point lead, led by 12 at the half but ended up losing 64-52. On Friday, the Panthers led Cedar Ridge 24-12 in the first half, but lost the lead by halftime and lost the game, as well, 51-48.

“It’s endurance, but it’s more mental,” Thompson said. “We have younger guys and we just need to learn how to win.”

“We knew coming into this game that we’re not an 0-7 team,” Franklin said. “We know we’re better than our record. This afternoon was us figuring out how to win.”

Thompson opened by scoring 16 of Orange’s first 18 points, including five three-pointers, as the Panther roared out to an 18-8 lead. The Panthers led wire-to-wire, despite the Vipers predictably clawing back to within one point in the second half.

If there was any time for Orange to run out of gas, it was on Saturday. It was the Panthers’ third game in three days. Sophomore Thomas Loch was called up from the junior varsity team just to have nine players in uniform.

Thompson and Franklin played the entire 32 minutes, while junior point guard J.J. Thompson played 31. Vance County (1-1), which has been in quarantine up until this week, had 14 players on the roster in only its second game.

Thompson and Franklin scored on transition lay-ups to open the fourth quarter and increase Orange’s lead to 53-41 with 5:12 remaining. Vance County’s Tra’On Lyons started a Viper rally with a three-pointer. After Tizaerion Holden blocked a shot by Ryan Moss, Lyons scored on a lay-in.

After J.J. Thompson sank two free throws to increase Orange’s lead to 55-46, Vance’s Saimir Betts’ drilled a 3-pointer. Kevon Burton rebounded a Thompson miss for a lay-in, then Lyons’ sank a 3-pointer to cut the Orange lead to 55-54 with 2:10 remaining.

On the next Orange possession, Franklin split two free throws after getting fouled on a drive to the lane. With Orange leading 56-54, Betts’ 3-point attempt was blocked by Franklin. After Kyle Stanley got the rebound for Orange, Franklin dished the ball to Jerec Thompson, who drilled a 19-footer with 48 seconds remaining.

“It was probably a shot I shouldn’t have taken,” Thompson said.

Thompson’s hot start was the polar opposite from Orange’s last trip to Henderson in January 2020. On that night, Vance County roared out to a 28-3 lead against a shellshocked Orange team that had just learned hours earlier that senior Machai Holt had been dismissed from the team.

Orange will host Northwood on Tuesday night for senior night. Because of the unique nature of this season, this was Orange’s final Big 8 Conference game. Only the first meetings against Big 8 teams count in the conference standings. The remaining games on Orange’s schedule will be considered non conference matchups.

Before tipoff, a moment of silence was held to honor legendary Vance County Coach Wilson Baskett, who passed away on January 9. Baskett played at the original Vance High School, then became head coach of the Vikings. When Vance High split into two schools in 1990, he remained head coach at Northern Vance High School. He was the first head coach at Vance County when the Vance School Board consolidated the two high schools in 2018. Baskett won 402 career games and four conference championships.

ORANGE 65, VANCE COUNTY 62

ORANGE: J.J. Thompson 4, Jason Franklin 23, Jerec Thompson 32, Darius Corbett 3, Hunter Birch 3.

VANCE COUNTY: Kevon Burton 3, Tra’On Lyons 22, Adrian Durham 6, Jaylen Fields 5, Zy’Shawn Appling 4, Saimir Betts 16, Johntavious Jiggetts 2, Tizaerion Holden 2, Traejon Durham 2

Orange has started games hot this year. Jerec Thompson started the Vance County game nuclear. Thompson scored 16 points in the first quarter in the Panthers’ 65-62 victory over Vance County in Henderson on Saturday. He finished with 32 in the Panthers’ first victory of the season. On Friday, Thompson scored 23 points, 14 in the first half, against Cedar Ridge. Thompson had 16 of Orange’s 18 points in the first quarter against the Vipers. His hot start pushed Orange to an early 15-point lead and the Panthers never trailed against the Vipers. It was a quality win for the Panthers in what will likely be their final game in Henderson for a long, long time. Vance County will leave the Big 8 Conference in August.