Cedar Ridge Men’s Basketball

When Landon Dalehite, Nathan Sorrells, D.J. Norman, Sincere Hanner, Crawford Farmer and Hayden Kirk started playing together as sixth graders at Gravelly Hill Middle School boys basketball team in 2018, they aimed to eventually do something that no other Grizzlies team had done before.

Win the Orange Person Athletic Conference Championship.

It wasn’t just something that no boys basketball team had ever done at Gravelly. With several different sports had won Northern Division championships, no team in any sport at Gravelly had captured an OPAC Championship since 2010.

Together, the boys basketball team won two Northern Division titles at the junior varsity level. This season, they were finally together on the varsity, but their season started with a loss to Culbreth on December 3.

From that point forward, Coach Eric Jeffries created a team motto.

Be homeless and be like homeless people.

“In other words, play like its our last game,” Jeffries said. “Play like we gotta eat that night. If we don’t eat that night, we might freeze. I was trying to get these guys to understand that when you get an opportunity, take advantage of it because they might not be a tomorrow.”

Gravelly didn’t lose again in 2019-2020, winning 12 in a row.

The Grizzlies won the first OPAC boys basketball championship in school history on Tuesday night when they defeated Phillips 45-37 at Grizzlies Gymnasium in Efland. While the eighth graders were the emotional leaders in Gravelly’s suffocating full-court press, it was seventh grader Kai Wade who stole the show.

Wade scored 13 points in a span of ten minutes bridging the second and third quarters to shake the Grizzlies out of an early offensive funk. Wade finished with 20 points to lead all scorers. Dalehite had nine.

Part of the sluggish start from both teams was because of a 75-minute delay when none of the referees showed up at the scheduled game time of 5:15. Gravelly Athletic Director David Hall had to scramble at the 11th hour and 59th minute to talk an official from Roxboro and another from Chapel Hill to work the game on the fly.

Phillips, whose only losses this season came against Gravelly, were led by Janiyus Sharpe with 17 points. Travion Cobb added 14. Trailing 17-12 at the half, Sharpe personally erased the deficit with five unanswered points within 47 seconds of the second half.

Minutes later, Sharpe picked up his fourth foul dueling Dalehite for a loose ball, and the Falcons offense couldn’t get out of second gear without him.

Gravelly built a 12-point lead early in the fourth quarter behind field goals by Kirk and Sorrells. When Dalehite hit Kirk with a no-look pass for a lay-in with 2:49 remaining, the celebration started in the bleachers for many Efland and Cedar Grove residents who had looked afar in recent years at high school state championships teams from Hillsborough and Mebane, but didn’t have a champion to call its own.

Until now.

Before the trophies were handed out and Jeffries cut down the net to hang around Hall’s neck, the eighth graders gathered at the midcourt logo for their last moment together on this floor. When they started playing organized basketball together three years ago, an OPAC Championship at Gravelly Hill was a distant goal.

Now, it was reality and they would savor it.

“Those eighth graders have done something that have never been done here before,” said Jeffries.

GRAVELLY HILL 45, PHILLIPS 37

GRAVELLY HILL: Kai Wade 20, Nathan Sorrells 5, Landon Dalehite 9, Crawford Farmer 3, Hayden Kirk 8.

PHILLIPS: Janiyus Sharpe 17, Travion Cobb 14, Sebastian Borsuk 4, Gavin Southwell 2.

By Jon Franklin

Two Cents from The Franklin Mint

Following the distribution of ballots to each member school, the North Carolina High School Athletic Association announced last week that the proposed amendments to the Association’s by-laws were defeated.

To recap, Proposal #1 would have allowed the NCHSAA Board of Directors to change the number of classifications from four to any number of classifications. The ballot mentioned five or six classifications, with the possibility of dropping back to three or four classifications in subsequent years if the board felt it was necessary.

Proposal #2 would have required the NCHSAA to realign schools and conferences on an annual basis for the state playoffs. This could have resulted in schools having teams in different classifications in each sport, each year. It also meant that conferences and the regular season could be less dependent on school classification.

Principals were designated voters on behalf of each member school and each school received a singular vote. Any school who failed to submit a ballot was be counted as a “no” vote. In order to pass these amendments, each issue required a three-fourths vote in the affirmative of the full membership to pass, or 314 of the 418 member schools. 

The exact figures of the votes were not released, but would be discussed at the NCHSAA Annual Meeting at the Dean E. Smith Center on April 30. The new realignment cycle is still slated to begin at the start of the 2021-2022 academic year.

So what does this all mean? Simply put, realignment is back at square one.

I’m not surprised to see these amendments fail. I personally believe that they were written TO fail. Whether this is true or not, remains to be seen. 

Think about it. With the mass expansion that the NCHSAA has experienced since the year 2000 has allowed football playoffs to grow from four state champions to eight state champions. Sports such as baseball, basketball, softball, and volleyball have expanded their playoffs from 48 teams to 64 teams. Despite being a non-profit organization, they seem to have “profited” from this expansion. Yet again, more teams produces more games, and more games equals more money. If all of this is true, why would you change something that brings in much needed revenue, and why would you take away these games that adds to the revenue?

The truth remains in that the Association is bloated beyond belief, and its playoff selection and qualification criteria is more likened to parks and recreation leagues handing out participation awards. The more this organization continues to swell and the playoffs continue to become diluted with inferior teams, the more irrelevant the championships will become.

And yes, until change comes with the expansion to 5A, and more sensible playoff qualification and selection rules are adopted – I’ll keep repeating all of this. 

So with the failure of this vote, what becomes next of realignment?

The truth is, realignment is still slated to begin at the start of the 2022-2023 academic year. While mandated by the Association’s by-laws to realign every four years, the extra year in this current cycle is designed to give the NCHSAA extra time to figure how they will expand. But if the expansion proposal was defeated how will the Association expand?

The simple answer might be to create a “Class 4AA”. This would allow the NCHSAA to expand without amending its by-laws as the by-laws only permits classifications of 1A, 2A, 3A, and 4A. This is reminiscent of the “Big 16” division in South Carolina, which is a super-conference of the 16 largest high schools in the Palmetto State. 

Conventional wisdom would also suggest that each of the classes would be aligned by an across-the-board, twenty percent split. Currently, schools are aligned by a 20-30-30-20 format as the highest and lowest twenty percentiles are the 4A and 1A classes, respectively, while the middle thirty percentiles are 2A and 3A. 

With 418 schools in the NCHSAA membership, an even twenty percent split would give each classification approximately 84 teams. At this rate, the idea of subdividing the football playoffs and 64-team state playoffs in other sports could finally be buried. In addition, there are dozens of schools caught in gray areas. This means is that currently, there are a number of schools that could be one classification or another. An even split would place each team in its’ rightful classification.

While the measure of yearly realignment was defeated, it could be brought up in the future that realignment could be suggested to take place every two years. The data utilizing Average Daily Membership (or ADM) becomes very ancient as the Association begins to compile the data two years prior to implementing the realignment. By the time the data reaches the end of the realignment cycle, the data is six years old. 

A city, town, county, or school district can drastically change in that period of time. With the rapid pace of school construction, a four-year realignment cycle could be inaccurate. An every two-year approach could be more accurate and sensible.

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If you didn’t come out to last Friday’s rivalry showdown between Orange and Cedar Ridge, you certainly missed out on some excellent games. All three games were tightly contested and all three games were tied going into the fourth quarter.

The highlight came in the Varsity Boys game as Cedar Ridge Arena was filled to capacity. The game was very much in favor of the Red Wolves as they were firing on all cylinders as senior captain Chris Tinnen (21 pts) and senior reserve Jai’kel Gibbs were laser-focused. Gibbs sent the Red Wolf faithful to a frenzy in the first quarter as he came off the bench to hit a trio of three-pointers in the last ninety seconds of the period. Tinnen was on point all game long with accurate mid-range shooting, and was all over the place defensively. Gibbs would also wind up hitting two more trifectas in the game, tallying 15 pts. Senior Mekai Collins (16 pts) also contributed with another solid performance. 

Let’s not take anything away from the Panthers’ double-double duo of Jason Franklin (no relation; 26 pts, 11 rebs) and Joey McMullin (18 pts, 12 rebs), who were instrumental in keeping Orange within striking distance. But with leads of up to 18 points in the game, the Red Wolves were not going to be denied of their first sweep of their crosstown rivals since 2015. 

And finally, last Friday’s games were the first Hillsborough Heat games for new Cedar Ridge principal, Dr. Carlos Ramirez and new Orange principal, Mr. Matthew J. Hunt. I was fortunate to meet Dr. Ramirez, who was immensely encouraged on what he witnessed inside Cedar Ridge Arena. Both principals (and fans) are in for a treat with this hotly contested rivalry.

The first burst of severe weather this winter wasn’t a snowstorm. It was thunderstorms and high winds, which has led the Cedar Ridge and Orange basketball teams to reschedule its final home games.

Cedar Ridge’s game against East Chapel Hill, originally scheduled for Friday night, was rescheduled for Monday night at 7. The Red Wolves’ women’s basketball team will play at East Chapel Hill on Monday night at 7.

The Orange men’s basketball team not only had to adjust its game against Chapel Hill on Friday, but also its final home game of the year against Southern Durham.

The Panthers’ men’s basketball team will face Chapel Hill on Monday night at home at 7:30. The Orange women’s basketball team travels to Chapel Hill on Monday night.

Originally, the Orange men had its senior night game scheduled against Southern Durham on Tuesday. Now, the game has been rescheduled for Wednesday night at 7:30. The Orange women will also travel to Southern Durham on Wednesday.

The Orange men will conclude its regular season with a road trip to Northern Durham at Poe Gymtorium next Thursday. The Orange women will have its senior night game against the Lady Knights next Thursday, which will be the final home game for Lady Panthers senior Grace Andrews.

The Big 8 Conference Tournament will start February 17. All four basketball teams will be on the road for their respective first round games.

Orange’s Senior Night game will be the final home game for seniors Joey McMullin and Tucker Miller. It will be an unusual ending to an awkward season for McMullin, in particular. On the opposite sideline will be Southern coach Greg Motley, who was McMullin’s coach for his first two seasons at Orange. Motley, who coached Orange for 20 years before resigning at the end of the 2017-18 season, still teaches Economics at Orange and even has several current Panther players as his students. McMullen was one of them earlier this year, as was Orange’s starting point guard J.J. Thompson.

Of the four local teams, the Orange women have the best chance to make the state playoffs, despite a rash of injuries and losing four starters from last year. The Lady Panthers nearly turned the Big 8 Conference standings over on its ear on Thursday night, carrying league leader Northwood to overtime. The Chargers came away with a 51-44 victory, but only after Orange missed two free throws with three seconds remaining with the score tied at 44-44.

The Lady Panthers are 10-9, 4-7 in the Big 8 Conference.

While the Cedar Ridge men held its senior night ceremonies against Orange on January 31, Monday’s game against East Chapel Hill will be the official final home game for Mekai Collins, K.J. Barnes, Andrew Altieri, Jai’kel Gibbs, Zach Holmes, Grayson Ramos and Cameron Hartley. With a win, the Red Wolves would have its first three-game winning streak since early December 2016.

The Cedar Ridge men will conclude its regular season with a road trip to Southern Durham on Thursday.

For the third time in four years, there’s a chance the same school could win both the Big 8 men’s and women’s regular season championships. In the men’s standings, Northwood is 10-1, one game ahead of Southern Durham and Vance County. The Chargers end the year with road trips to Northern Durham and East Chapel Hill before finishing with a home game against Vance County. The Chargers defeated the Vipers 72-55 on January 21. Northwood and Southern Durham split their season series.

After escaping against Orange, Northwood leads the Big 8 Conference with a 10-1 record. Southern Durham, who lost both games to the Chargers, is 9-2.

Orange swept both basketball races in 2016-17. Hillside did it last year.

Schedule for the final week of the regular season:

Cedar Ridge men:

Monday: vs. East Chapel Hill in Hillsborough at 7.

Tuesday: at Vance County

Thursday: at Southern Durham

Cedar Ridge women:

Monday: at East Chapel Hill

Tuesday: at Vance County

Thursday: at Southern Durham

Orange men:

Monday: vs. Chapel Hill at 7:30

Wednesday: vs. Southern Durham 7:30

Thursday: at Northern Durham 7:30

Orange women:

Monday: at Chapel Hill

Wednesday: at Southern Durham

Thursday: vs. Northern Durham

Story by Tim Hackett

A lot can change in a month. Fewer than four weeks after the Cedar Ridge men scored 22 straight points en route to a rout and the Cedar Ridge women saw a potential game-tying three at the buzzer slip barely offline in a split with Northern Durham in Hillsborough, a lot changed Tuesday night in Durham. Last time, the Cedar Ridge men never trailed, put together a third quarter for the ages and won by 25; this time, they trailed by 15 early on in the second and needed an all-time clutch shot by a red-hot shooter to fall in just to force overtime and eventually eke out a win. Last time, neither Cedar Ridge nor Northern ever led by more than five before one star Knight ultimately took over; this time, that star Knight shone again, and Cedar Ridge never got going. And ultimately, even though a lot of things changed, two things remained the same: the Cedar Ridge men won and the women lost, resulting in a doubleheader split for the second time this season.

The Cedar Ridge men’s team certainly looked a lot different Tuesday than it did last month. With Mekai Collins and KJ Barnes unavailable for the first quarter (the Cedar Ridge coaches later revealed they had been suspended for deciding to miss practice earlier in the week) and Derrick Smith and Grayson Ramos unavailable for the entirety of the game, the Red Wolves were down four frequent starters. They were soon down 10-0 before James Ragland finally got the visitors on the board with a three with 2:07 left in the first – Cedar Ridge did not score otherwise and Northern led 14-3 after one. Collins and Barnes, suspensions lifted with the situation dire, entered the fray but could only watch as the Knights stretched their lead out to 21-8 midway through the second. Then Northern head coach Ronnie Russell called a timeout to set his defense, but it had the opposite effect: Cedar Ridge reeled off the final nine points of the period to pull within four at the halftime break at 21-17 – with every point coming courtesy of Ragland and Collins until a late three-point spurt by Grady Ray provided some balance.

Cedar Ridge is a tough team to figure out. Rookie head coach Jaison Brooks features a 16-man roster when it’s fully stocked, and he frequently rolls out 12 or more guys in any given game. But it’s always a guessing game as to which of those guys will step into a starring role. Mekai Collins nearly always is up to the task, and he’s more than good enough to keep the Red Wolves in contention on many nights, but he can rarely ever do it himself. Last time out against Orange, Chris Tinnen and Jai’kel Gibbs answered the bell with career games; in this game, they combined for three points. Players like Barnes, Ian Johnson and Cameron Harper have had their moments this season; on this night, they combined for two points on a field goal in the final minutes by Barnes. The Red Wolves needed someone else.

Enter Andrew Altieri. The senior lefty sharpshooter can be a streaky scorer, but on this night he was simply scorching. He got the start with all of the team’s absences but couldn’t crack the scoreboard in the first half, but that all changed as soon as he hit Cedar Ridge’s first shot of the second half, his patented right-wing lefty three-pointer. And he wasn’t close to done. He hit two more wing threes for his team’s next two buckets to cut their deficit to two as he and Luke Pagnanelli combined for seven second-half threes to flip the script and get Cedar Ridge back in the game.

But Derrien Hicklen was getting hot on the other side: his deep right-wing three, part of a 13-point second-half outburst, capped an 8-0 Knight run to put them ahead 52-47 in the fourth with time running out. After Pagnanelli hit a three and Collins hit a two to make it 53-52, it seemed like any hope of a Cedar Ridge comeback was snuffed as Jaylen Lee sprung Anthony Freeman with an over-the-shoulder pass for an easy bucket with 20 seconds left and a three-point lead. But the sharpshooters delivered: Altieri set up Pagnanelli for an open right corner three to tie, but it sprung off the rim – into the waiting hands of Altieri, who took one peek at the scoreboard, shifted back into the left corner, stepped back for a fadeaway three over the outstretched arm of the much-taller Lee and straight in for the tie with less than ten seconds left. Cedar Ridge could’ve won at the last gasp of regulation, but Barnes missed a free throw, sending Cedar Ridge to overtime for the first time this year. From there, it was little surprise that it was Altieri who delivered another three – his sixth of the game – and two clutch free throws for a career-high 20 points to steer the Red Wolves (6-14, 4-7 Big 8) to a 67-63 overtime win over the Knights (4-17, 2-9) and keep their incredibly slim playoff hopes intact.

Caitlin Lloyd owns Northern Durham. Unfortunately, Maya Hood owns just about everybody. Fresh off a 22-point showing against the Red Wolves in Hillsborough last month, the star Knight sophomore gashed Cedar Ridge for 23 more on Tuesday to lead Northern (7-11, 3-8 Big 8) to a 41-31 victory over Cedar Ridge (1-19, 0-11 Big 8) in Durham.

It was frankly a disappointing start for the Red Wolves after they played so well for three quarters on Senior Night last week against Orange and, more importantly, after they played so well for four quarters against Northern last month – Hood’s 18 second half points and Phoenix Smith’s buzzer-beater than was centimeters offline were the only reasons Cedar Ridge failed to win three weeks ago. But this time around they couldn’t stop Hood early, couldn’t convert their offensive chances, and couldn’t dig out of an early deficit. Cedar Ridge conceded ten of the final 11 points of the first quarter and ten of the final 12 of the second to fall behind 25-10 at the break, and better team defense in the second half capped by an 8-0 surge in the game’s final minutes made the scoreline closer than it was.

But, as usual, the Red Wolves produced plenty of highlights. Angelica Carbajal drained a three for her first field goal of the season. Tori Dalehite erupted for ten fourth-quarter points, showing off her shot-making ability and persistence in the face of a slow start to give her a team-high 11 points. And Caitlyn Lloyd exploited Northern’s often nonexistent post defense en route to a ten-point showing, her first career double-digit outing. She scored five field goals, at least one in every quarter, flashed some range and some shot-making of her own, and won multiple offensive boards for her team. The road ahead for the Cedar Ridge women is rough indeed with three of the conference’s best on tap, all on the road, but on this night this team once again proved that even if they go down, it won’t be without a fight.

The Cedar Ridge men’s basketball team defeated Northern Durham 67-63 in overtime at Poe Gymtorium on Tuesday night. Andrew Altieri hit six 3-points for the Red Wolves and finished with a career-high 20 points. Cedar Ridge won its sixth game, more than its previous two seasons combined. They also completed a season sweep of Northern Durham. Cedar Ridge played without Derrick Smith and Grayson Ramos. James Ragland, Mekai Collins and Grady Ray scored all 20 of the Red Wolves points in the first half. Afterwards, Cedar Ridge Coach Jaison Brooks talked with Hillsboroughsports.com’s Jamir Graham. Cedar Ridge will host East Chapel Hill for its final home game of the year on Friday night at 7:30. You can hear the game on Hillsboroughsports.com starting at 7:25.

After winning five games in the previous two years, the Cedar Ridge men’s basketball team won its sixth game of the season on Tuesday night. The Red Wolves defeated Northern Durham in overtime at Poe Gymtorium in Durham. Red Wolves senior Andrew Altieri hit a critical shot in overtime to even the game. Afterwards, Altieri spoke with Hillsboroughsports.com’s Jmari Graham. Altieri has had a strong finish to his final season at Cedar Ridge. He helped the Red Wolves defeated crosstown rival Orange on Friday night, the first time Cedar Ridge swept the Panthers in the regular season since 2015. Cedar Ridge will look to continue its climb in the Big 8 Conference with its final home game against East Chapel Hill on Friday night in Hillsborough. You can hear that game on Hillsboroughsports.com starting at 7:30 with Tim Hackett and Jmari.

This week’s Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week is men’s basketball guard Chris Tinnen. On Friday night, Tinnen led the Red Wolves with 21 points as Cedar Ridge defeated Orange 66-60. The win completed a regular season sweep by the Red Wolves of its crosstown rival for the first time since 2015. After Orange made a run in the third quarter, Tinnen scored 14 points in the second half, including nine in the third quarter. Tinnen has been an instrumental part of Cedar Ridge’s most successful season since Tinnen’s freshman year. Chris’ brother, Justin, previously played for Cedar Ridge. Tinnen will play his final home game against East Chapel Hill on Friday night at Red Wolves Gymnasium.