In the nonstop thrill ride that is Orange men’s basketball, things can get hectic fast.
From ally-oop slam dunks to shot blocks that wind up in the fourth row of the Orange student section, the Panthers can fill up a highlight reel easily. Add in an Orange home crowd that has nearly packed the home grandstand to capacity twice this year, the subsequent noise can send adrenaline to peak levels.
Against Walter Williams on Friday night, there was an overload.
Early in the second quarter, sophomore point guard Kai Wade found classmate Mason Robinson for an ally-oop dunk that sent the gym on its ear. Moments later, the Orange bench was hit with a technical fall when a reserve said something on the bench. As Orange extended its lead too 21-10, there was confusion over the possession arrow at the scorer’s table, which led to an Orange High School administrator walking over to try to quell the situation.
As the confusion wound down, Orange coach Darryl Britt adjusted his stool as action restarted. An official thought that Britt slammed the end of his stool onto the court in frustration over a foul that was called against Orange and gave him another technical, leading to Britt’s ejection. Britt barely protested and appeared more confused that angry as he led the gym.
Bitt watched the rest of the game off the National Federation of High School Sports Network feed on his iPad while assistant William Dobbs took over the reigns.
As the Orange fans showered the officials with boos, the Panthers made sure there wouldn’t be any drama for the rest of the night.
Orange went on a 16-0 run where the scoring was balanced between several starters and cruised to a 77-40 win over the Bulldogs. Coleman Cloer finished with 22 points and eight rebounds while junior Xandrell Pennix added 19 points, six rebounds and five steals.
Orange (5-10, 3-0 in the Central Conference) maintained its share of first place in the Central Conference. The Panthers and Eastern Alamance are the only teams undefeated in league play.
The Bulldogs were limited to 24% shooting from the field. Cavion Stokes paced Williams (5-4, 0-2) with eleven points.
Orange had 18 assists on 27 field goals. Senior center Ryan Honeycutt added ten points and six rebounds.
It was the first time that Dobbs found himself in a situation where he was the head coach of a team since he led the Cedar Ridge women’s team for two seasons, ending in 2021.
“Coach Britt and I before the beginning of every game,” Dobbs said. “I know ahead of time what his plans are and what we plan to do. Unfortunately, tonight he had to step out and I had to step in. But I know the game plan and we just preceded with what we had mapped out.”
For the second straight game, Orange never trailed, though they started slowly from the field. The Bulldogs Brian Williams canned a jumper with 1:35 remaining in the first quarter to even the score at 6-6, the game’s only tie. That seemed to snap Orange out of its funk as they scored eight points in the final 1:27 of the first quarter.
Cloer drained two free throws, followed by a three-pointer from Pennix off a drive-and-dish from Cloer. Then Clower nailed a 20-footer just before the buzzer.
Stokes knocked down two free throws following Britt’s technical foul to cut Orange’s lead to 21-14. Cloer took a pass from Wade for a one-handed dunk to trigger Orange’s big run. Wade, who finished with six assists, fed Honeycutt for another two-handed flush, increasing Orange’s lead to 25-14 and the Bulldogs would never get in double figures again.
Freshman Hector Garrido came off the bench to score seven points, grab three rebounds and dish out two assists for Orange in the second half.