No last second foul. No clutch free throws. No drama.
Unlike last week’s season finale against Eastern Alamance, the Orange women’s basketball team put up a dominant performance against the Eagles. It has led the Lady Panthers to its first conference tournament championship game since 2017.
Junior Addie Atkins scored a season-high 16 points, shooting 3-of-7 from 3-point range, to help Orange in a wire-to-wire 54-36 win over Eastern Alamance in the Central Conference Tournament semifinals on the Coach Evans Court at Western Alamance High School.
Orange (17-8) will face top-seeded Western Alamance for the Central Conference championship in Elon on either Friday or Saturday. The Warriors crushed Walter Williams 77-22 in the other semifinal. The Warriors, who won the Central Conference regular season championship for the second straight year, have won 25 consecutive games against conference opponents.
Orange was the last Central Conference team to defeat the Warriors on January 3, 2024.
Atkins came up one point shy of her career-high of 17 points, set against Garner on December 12, 2023. Orange senior Evelyn George added 16 points and seven rebounds.
Aliya Trollinger paced Eastern Alamance (13-12) with 19 points. She was the only Eagle in double-figures.
The Lady Panthers have won six in a row, tying its longest winning streak under first-year head coach Josh Underwood.
“I think we picked up our defensive intensity the way we should have early on,” said Underwood, an Orange graduate who previously served as an assistant at Eastern Alamance. “We set a precedent for how good we could be early on against Cedar Ridge. Hopefully that will carry forward as we move on into the conference tournament final and the state playoffs.
Orange’s defense wore down the Eagles, who shot just 26% from the field. Orange built a lead up to 54-32 as they held the Eagles to just three points in the opening five minutes of the fourth quarter.
Shannon Murphy, a senior who drained two free throws with one second remaining to beat Eastern Alamance 64-63 on her senior night last Friday, opened the game with a 3-pointer. Eastern’s Ayanna Garner came back with a 3-pointer, notching the game’s only tie. Atkins scored five consecutive points to put the Panthers ahead for the rest of the game, including a 3-pointer assisted by point guard Maura McMurtry and a lay-in assisted by Murphy.
“Addison has had some great practices,” Underwood said. “She’s really knocked down some shots for us. Tonight, she put everything together on a night where we needed someone else to step up. She stepped up.”
George and sophomore Lily Wilson added consecutive field goals to push the Panther advantage to 13-5, but the Eagles inched back. Trollinger and J’Mya Stump keyed six consecutive Eastern points to cut the Panther lead to 13-11 at the end of the first quarter.
Atkins opened the second quarter with back-to-back 3-pointers, including one on the wing assisted by Murphy. Senior center Marshea Byrd, who finished with seven points and ten rebounds, extended the Panther run with a lay-in while getting fouled by Ayanna Garner. George scored on a lay-in off a steal to push the Panther lead to 24-13.
The Panther lead would grow to 27-13 after another lay-in by George. Atkins and Wilson added the final two field goals of the first half as the Panthers went into the locker room ahead 32-19.
The last postseason tournament championship for the Orange women’s basketball team came in 2017, when they defeated Northwood 58-34 to take the Big Eight Championship. Kaylen Campbell, currently the Orange women’s junior varsity head coach and a varsity assistant, led the Panthers with 21 points against the Chargers.
In the tournament championship game, Orange will be the decided underdog against a Western Alamance team that has defeated Orange four straight times, including last year’s tournament semifinals. The Warriors would go on to take the postseason championship.
“They have one of the best back courts in the state,” Underwood said. “They’re a tough team. I feel like we played them tough at their place. It was a game of 3-pointers the last time in Elon. We made two. They made eleven. I feel like our defense is much better now. We’re a much different team than we were at that time.”