Month: February 2021

Playing its third game in three days, the Orange men’s basketball team found a way to win on Saturday afternoon. The Panthers led wire-to-wire in a 65-62 victory over Vance County in Henderson. It was Orange’s first win of the season and its first-ever against Vance County. Senior Jason Franklin scored 23 points, including 16 in the second half. Franklin had his first dunk in the first half. Now in his fourth year as a varsity player, Franklin has had much of the traditional aspects of a senior season taken away because of the COVID-19 pandemic. There was no holiday tournament at Christmas, no big crowds for home games and there won’t be a Big 8 Conference Tournament. But Franklin has played hard for Orange. On Thursday against Southern Durham, he led Orange with 24 points. On Tuesday, Franklin will commemorate senior night against Northwood in Hillsborough.

Cedar Ridge senior guard Ian Johnson knocked down four pressure free throws in the final minute against Orange. With Cedar Ridge trailing 48-47, Luke Pagnanelli stole the ball away from the Panthers, leading to Johnson getting fouled. Johnson sank the two game-winning free throws. After Orange missed a chance to take the lead, Johnson extended the Red Wolves’ lead to 51-48 with two more charity tosses. Johnson finished with 15 points as the Red Wolves defeated their crosstown rivals for the fourth straight time. Johnson scored nine points in the fourth quarter and was one of three Cedar Ridge players in double figures.

At this time two years ago, the Cedar Ridge men’s basketball team was counting the days to a merciful end of an interminable 1-23 season.

The sophomores on that team included Ian Johnson, Luke Pagnanelli, Grady Ray and Sam Garbee. On February 1, 2019, they lost to Orange 74-49 inside Panther Gymnasium. It was their eighth loss to the Panthers in the last nine meetings.

If you had told any of those players it would be their last loss against Orange ever, you probably have gotten some strange looks and perhaps even laughter.

But the atmosphere around Cedar Ridge men’s basketball has changed and the balance of basketball power across Hillsborough has undeniably shifted to the west end of town.

The Red Wolves defeated the Panthers 51-48 on Friday night at Orange Gymnasium. It was Cedar Ridge’s fourth consecutive win over Orange. Pagnanelli sank two free throws with 1:09 remaining after he stole the ball from Orange in the open court and was fouled in transition.

It was Pagnanelli’s only free throws of the game.

“It was my last game against Orange,” Pagnanelli said. “We just had to come out firing early. They started falling.”

In a frantic final minute, Orange’s Jason Franklin missed a one-handed runner, which was rebounded by Johntez Raspberry. Cedar Ridge’s Neco Clark, with Cedar Ridge leading 49-48, missed a shot, which was rebounded by Devin Corbett with 15.9 seconds remaining. Orange’s Jerec Thompson missed a 3-pointer, leading to Johnson canning two free throws for the margin of victory.

“At the end of practice, Coach Brooks makes us shoot free throws,” Johnson said. “I get a little competitive with Garrett Ray because we typically compete in free throw contests at the end of practice. He usually beats me, but I got them to go in tonight.”

Orange’s final points came off a 15-footer by Thompson with 3:53 remaining.

The Panthers missed a desperation three-pointer at the buzzer. Orange, which is now 0-6, last won a game against Northern Durham on February 14, 2020.

Thompson led orange with 23 points. It was Orange’s second game in two days. On Thursday, the Panthers led by as many as 15 points against Southern Durham (and by 12 at the half) before falling 64-52. Franklin scored 24 against the Spartans, but was held to six against the Red Wolves.

Cedar Ridge (3-5) will host Northern Durham on Tuesday. With only the initial meetings between league rivals being counted as conference games this year, Cedar Ridge has two conference games remaining against Southern Durham and Vance County. They can play as many as six more games, but Friday’s game against Orange will be the last time they see their crosstown rivals this season.

Jerec Thompson flat-out shot Orange into a double-digit lead early. Thompson scored 15 of Orange’s first 19 points as the Panthers led 19-12 at the end of the first quarter.

Franklin opened the second quarter with two free throws, followed by a three-pointer by Ryan Moss, which pushed the Orange lead to 24-12.

It was reminiscent of the first matchup between the two teams on January 11, when Orange built a 19-point lead, only to have the Red Wolves charge back to win in overtime.

This time, Cedar Ridge erased the 12-point deficit before halftime. It started when Johnson sank a three-pointer, followed by another from Pagnanelli that forced an Orange time out. Pagnanelli knocked down two more field goals, and a three-pointer from Clark pushed Cedar Ridge ahead 28-27 at the half.

With the scored tied going into the fourth quarter, Jerec Thompson knocked down a three-pointer to put Orange in the lead, which was followed by another trey from J.J. Thompson.

“I was nervous, but I knew we could come back,” Pagnanelli said. “We came back on them the last time. We have a good team and I thought we were going to win it down the stretch.”

Not to be outdone, Cedar Ridge tied the game with consecutive three-pointers from Pagnanelli and Johnson to even the game at 46.

It is the longest winning streak Cedar Ridge has ever had against Orange in the history of the rivalry, which started in 2002.

Orange will play its final Big 8 Conference game against Vance County on Saturday, its third game in three days.

CEDAR RIDGE 51, ORANGE 48

CEDAR RIDGE: Ian Johnson 14, Luke Pagnanelli 22, Neco Clark 10, Garrett Ray 3, A.J. Richmond 2.

ORANGE: Jerec Thompson 23, J.J. Thompson 6, Jason Franklin 6, Kyle Stanley 2, Hunter Birch 5, Ryan Moss 5, Devin Corbett 1.

In 2019, it would be hard to imagine the Cedar Ridge Red Wolves beating crosstown rival Orange four consecutive times. But that’s exactly what’s happened since Jaison Brooks became the head coach of the Red Wolves in the summer of 2019. On Friday night, Cedar Ridge swept the season series from Orange, beating the Panthers 51-48 at Orange High Gymnasium. Senior guard Luke Pagnanelli led Cedar Ridge with 22 points, including five three-pointers. Friday’s win was especially sweet for Pagnanelli, who was a member of the 2018-2019 Cedar Ridge team that won one game the whole season. After the Red Wolves third win of the season, Cedar Ridge will host Northern Durham on Tuesday night at Red Wolves Gymnasium.

Back in the days when the Orange Panthers were in the PAC-6 Conference, trips up Highway 57 were common.

It was only natural that Orange and Person High Schools developed a rivalry. They were neighboring counties with a healthy population of students from rural areas. For some residents of northern Orange County communities like Cedar Grove, Hurdle Mills and Caldwell, a drive to Person High was actually shorter than a trip to their home school in Hillsborough.

Yet Orange and Person haven’t been conference rivals since 2001.

It appears that’s about to change.

The North Carolina High School Athletic Association released the third draft of its 2021 realignment plan on Thursday. Orange and Cedar Ridge remained paired in the 3A “Conference 25.” There were no changes from the second draft, which pairs the Red Wolves and Panthers with teams located closer to the Triad and leaves its longtime rivals across Durham and Chapel Hill in the rear view mirror.

Conference 25 includes Person, Eastern Alamance, Williams, Western Alamance and Northwood in a 7-team league. Of those squads, only Northwood is a current league rival for Cedar Ridge and Orange in the Big 8 Conference.

Schools have until February 10 to turn in any written appeals to the realignment committee. Since there were no changes from the second draft, it appears that Conference 25 (which will be given a more traditional name by the NCHSAA this spring) will be set in stone this spring.

The original draft, released in December, had Carrboro in Conference 25. That changed in the second draft, where Carrboro and Person basically switched spots. Carrboro is now slated to be in Conference 18, a spit 3A-2A league with Southern Durham, Vance County, Durham School of the Arts, Granville Central (2A), South Granville (2A) and J.F. Webb (2A)

Chapel Hill, East Chapel Hill and Northern Durham, the remaining Big 8 schools, will return to 4A. They’re slated to join Conference 30 with Jordan, Hillside, Riverside and Southern Alamance.

When the current formation of the Big 8 was created in 2017, there was some surprise among high school observers that Person wasn’t included. Instead, the Rockets opted to join the Mid-State Conference, facing schools like McMichael High in Mayodan (a distance of 66 miles) and Northern Guilford in Greensboro (58 miles).

When asked at the time, Person High’s Athletic Director said the NCHSAA didn’t want 9-team conferences, so the Rockets chose a less traditional and much lengthier option.

The creation of Conference 25 will mark the end of an era for Orange on several levels. For the first time since 1985, the Panthers will not have a conference rival from Durham.

After Cedar Ridge opened in 2002, a reduction in Orange’s enrollment forced them to drop to 2A. Even then, the Panthers competed against Durham School of the Arts in the Mid-State Conference.

The new league also breaks up the Orange-Chapel Hill dynamic. For decades, Orange-Chapel Hill was a natural rivalry since they were the only two high schools in the entire county. They’ve remained Big 8 Conference rivals since Chapel Hill dropped to 3A in 2009.

For Cedar Ridge, the new league brings together natural rivalries that have been brewing through nonconference games for years. In softball, Eastern Alamance and the Red Wolves have competed regularly, including in the 3rd round of the 2019 3A State Playoffs, where the Eagles prevailed en route to the State Championship. The Red Wolves and the Eagles regularly compete in men’s and women’s soccer, women’s tennis and volleyball.

An Orange-Eastern Alamance football rivalry has been the object of desire for many local fans for ages, and it would seem easy to make. But red rape and regulations from school boards constantly got in the way. Many Orange players honed their skills in Mebane in youth leagues. Orange and Eastern Alamance have regularly held a football scrimmage on the final Friday before the regular season begins, but they haven’t played in an actual game since the 2012 3A State Playoffs, where Orange won 14-13 in Mebane.

The changes will go into effect in August. The 2021-2025 realignment figures were based on the 2019-2020 Average Daily Members numbers.

For years, Cedar Ridge had the lowest ADM in the Big 8 Conference. Based on the 2019-2020 numbers, that will remain the case in the new league. Cedar Ridge’s last reported ADM was 1,076. The next closest school is Person at 1,095.

Orange’s ADM is 1,306. Among teams in Conference 25, Northwood has the highest current ADM at 1,433, while Eastern Alamance is 1,234. Western Alamance is 1,155 and Walter Williams is 1,177.

On paper, and perhaps in practice, the Orange women’s basketball team was supposed to have an easy win over East Chapel Hill on Wednesday. The Wildcats only had five players. But even with the minimum about of players, its never easy for Orange at East. The Lady Panthers squeezed out a 37-32 win over a determined Wildcats team. Orange is now 4-1 in the Big 8 Conference with two league games remaining. Guard Samantha George finished with seven points, including a 3-pointer early in the first quarter. George and Aaliyah Harris have paired together for a high-scoring backcourt that has Orange on the verge of making the 3A State Playoffs for the third straight year. Orange hosts crosstown rival Cedar Ridge on Friday night at Orange, which will be Senior Night for the Lady Panthers. Orange will travel to Vance County on Saturday.