For the past three years, the measuring stick of men’s basketball across Orange, Chatham and Alamance Counties has been the Northwood Chargers.
They’ve won two of the last three Big 8/Central Carolina Conference championships, 22 consecutive conference games and played for the 3A State Championship in 2021.
Orange is off to its best start in four years, despite often starting four players who have never played at the varsity level before this season. Off to a 6-2 start and coming off a road win at Western Alamance on Tuesday night, the Panthers saw Wednesday’s game against Northwood as a litmus test to see how far a young but skillful team was from challenging a state championship contender.
The answer is there’s still plenty of work to do.
The Chargers reeled off 13 straight points in the first quarter and shot 8-of-11 from 3-point range in the first half to beat the Panthers 72-47 at Panther Gymnasium on Wednesday night. The Chargers (7-1, 2-0 in the Central Carolina Conference) have beaten Orange nine straight times. The Panthers last win over the Chargers came on February 1, 2017.
Jake Leighton led Northwood with 17 points. Drake Powell, who committed to play at UNC over the summer, added ten points and nine rebounds as the Chargers won for the second time in two nights.
Sophomore Xandrell Pennix paced Orange (6-3, 1-1) with eleven points. Ryan Honeycutt, a junior center in his first season on the varsity, added ten points.
“I come away from this game feeling doggone good about my ball club,” said Orange coach Derryl Britt. “We led these guys get away on a run in the second quarter where they knocked down several 3-pointers. They knocked down quality shots. We contested them, so kudos to them. We knew they were a good team coming in.”
Orange actually started with six straight points to open the game, including stickback buckets in the paint from Honeycutt and senior Isaiah Seymour despite the massive presence of Northwood’s 6-11 center Kenan Parrish and 6-foot-9 forward Max Frazier.
That’s when the Chargers’ downtown machine got going. Powell canned the first of eleven 3-pointers with 4:56 remaining in the first quarter, then drained another to give the Chargers an 8-6 lead. Leighton added a field goal off an assist from Frazier, followed by Parrish showing off a soft touch from outside with a 3-pointer from straightaway.
The Chargers shot 10-of-12 from the field in the second quarter to push its lead to 47-24 at halftime, outscoring the Panthers 27-14 to keep their advantage in double-digits the rest of the way.
Britt remained positive afterwards despite the loss. The Panthers have a short turnaround before a Friday game against Walter Williams in Burlington, where Orange has lost its last three trips.
“We never get too high off of wins and we never get too low off losses,” Britt said. “We take them for what they are. We have another tough game on Friday. Our intent is to make Williams executive as well as Northwood executed tonight.”
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: NORTHWOOD 60, ORANGE 27
Northwood, the defending 3A State Champions, rolled past Orange for its fourth straight win in the opening game of the doubleheader on Wednesday night.
Freshman Alyia Roberts and senior Gianna McManaman teamed up for a three-point attack that sent Orange reeling early. Roberts had a career-high 18 points off the bench. McManaman added 16 points as the Chargers (4-3, 2-0) won its 37th consecutive conference game. The Chargers, who have won three consecutive conference championships, defeated the Lady Panthers for the eighth straight time.
The Lady Panthers (4-5, 0-2) were led by sophomore Evelyn George, who had seven points. McManaman drained a three-pointer at the end of the first quarter to put the Chargers ahead 15-8 and Northwood wasn’t challenged again.