Regardless of the sport, there’s nothing certain when the state playoffs roll around.
It’s unclear if Tuesday night’s win by the Orange women’s basketball team was the final home game for its six seniors. But if it was, they went out playing some of their best basketball.
Facing a Swansboro team whose only two losses since Christmas came against Coastal Conference champion Croatan, Orange put together a wire-to-wire win in the opening round of the 3A State Playoffs.
The 16th-seeded Orange Lady Panthers defeated #17 Swansboro 50-33 in Hillsborough to advance to the second round of the 3A State Playoffs. The Lady Panthers will face #1 seeded Terry Sanford in Fayetteville on Friday night. Terry Sanford rolled past West Johnson 60-13 in the opening round to improve to 24-3.
After being eliminated in the opening round of the state playoffs each of the past four years, Orange won a state playoff game for the first time since 2017, when they defeated Havelock in Hillsborough.
Orange improved to 18-9. It’s the most wins in a season for Orange since 2018-2019, a squad led by Icez Barnett and Lauren Cates that went 19-7. They were the last Lady Panther team to host a game in the state playoffs, falling to Eastern Alamance in the opening round.
Orange point guard Maura McMurtry led the Lady Panthers with 16 points. McMurtry shot 5-of-8 from 3-point range despite picking up her third foul with 4:36 remaining in the second quarter.
After amassing 24 double-doubles in her career , Evelyn George fell just short of #25. But she did flirt with a triple-double, coming away with a stat line of 13 points, seven rebounds, eight steals and five assists in what was likely her final home game. George surpassed 1,000 points against Cedar Ridge last month. She now has 739 career rebounds.
Swansboro (14-7) was led by Addison King, who finished with eleven points and nine rebounds.
The Pirates committed 30 turnovers, the most forced by Orange this season. The Lady Panthers had 19 steals, including five by senior center Marshea Byrd.
It was the first state playoff win for first-year Orange head coach Josh Underwood. On his staff is assistant Kaylen Campbell, who was a senior guard who scored 21 points in the Lady Panthers previous playoff win against Havelock eight years ago.
Orange opened the game on a 8-2 run with Byrd scoring a stickback shot from point-blank range, followed by a 3-pointer from George assist by classmate Shannon Murphy. McMurtry sank back-to-back 3-pointers, both assisted by George, to push the Lady Panther lead to 11-4. After a theft by George of a pass thrown by King, McMurtry dropped in a perfect pass to George between a double team. George scored on a lay-in from the right block while getting fouled by King for a 3-point play, pushing the Lady Panther lead to 14-4.
Swansboro’s Gianna Fandino shot the Pirates back into the game with consecutive 3-pointers, the final one assisted by Kendall Hackworth to cut the Orange advantage to 17-13 at the end of the first quarter.
Hackworth drained a 3-pointer to open the second quarter to cut the Orange lead to 18-16, which was the closest the Pirates would get to tying the game. Orange steadily pulled away, not only another Swansboro field goal for 3:33. Byrd scored on a 3-point play, taking an entry pass from George and scored from under the basket as she was hacked by Brooke Brady.
In the second half, King hit a running one-hander to reduce Orange’s lead to 29-24, but Alexis Stephens captured a pass from Addie Atkins for a lay-in while getting fouled. Stephens 3-point play put Orange head 35-24 with 4:37 remaining in the third quarter. George’s 3-pointer with 2:04 remaining in the frame kept the lead in double digits for the remainder of the game.
Orange senior Bryce Jones hit two free throws late in the fourth quarter in likely her final home game.