Cedar Ridge High School

Following losses to Northern Guilford and Enloe, the Cedar Ridge boys lacrosse team found a way to bounce back just in time for a meeting with their archrivals.

The Red Wolves defeated Jacksonville 15-4 on Friday night at Red Wolves Stadium. Sean Tobin, Kyle Zylowski and Braden Danku each had a hat trick for CRHS, which improved to 3-3. Cedar Ridge’s Zak Berry made seven saves.

It was another strong all-around game for midfielder Jack Widman, who collected six points on two goals and four assists.  He also won four of six faceoffs.  He leads the team in scoring with 23 points, and is tied for second on the team with eleven goals.

Tobin paces the team with 16 goals.

Cedar Ridge faces Panther Creek on Monday in Cary before traveling to face Orange at OHS Thrusday at 7.

Cedar Ridge Goalkeeper Zak Berry Talks the Red Wolves Season

Cedar Ridge defeated Jacksonville on Friday night 15-4. Berry made seven saves as the Red Wolves ended a two-game losing streak.

Jack Widman scored a highlight reel goal late with an behind-the-back pitchfork shot that found the top of the net vs. Northern Guilford. Sean Tobin scored four points, including two goals. Northern Guilford defeated the Red Wolves 14-8 at Johnny Roscoe Stadium in Greensboro.

Jack Widman, Sean Tobin Talk About CRHS Loss to NGHS

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There was something about Cedar Ridge’s final six weeks of the season that indicated they wouldn’t let their season end without a fight in the state playoffs.

Indeed, that turned out to be the case against Rocky Mount.

Peyton Pappas scored 35 points while Jacob Thomas 24 as the Red Wolves defeated 81-77 on Tuesday night in Rocky Mount.

It was clear someone from the Rocky Mount coaching staff watches the Los Angeles Clippers regularly, because the Gryphons fouled after every made basket down the stretch. Unfortunately for Rocky Mount, there were no DeAndre Jordan’s on the Red Wolves roster.

Thomas and Pappas sank pressure free throws in the final minute to preserve the Cedar Ridge lead. When Rocky Mount had a chance to tie with a 3-pointer late, Pappas knocked the ball away from Rocky Mount’s Emmanuel Spruill at midcourt to put CRHS into the second round.

Cedar Ridge, seeded 17th, will face the number one seed in the 3A East bracket, Eastern Alamance in Mebane. The Eagles, who defeated C.B. Aycock on Tuesday night in the first round, are 26-1. It’s only loss came against Burlington Cummings on January 30th 69-61.

It was Cedar Ridge’s first state playoff victory since February 26th, 2010, when the Red Wolves competed as a 2A team and made it to Eastern Regional semifinals under the program’s first head coach, Jim Pappas.

Cedar Ridge is now 19-9, the most wins for the program since going 25-3 in 2009-10.

The Gryphons, who earned the top seed from the Big East Conference, ends the season 7-17.

After winning ten of its last eleven, there was more than hope within the Cedar Ridge basketball camp that Wednesday night would be the night they could gain the elusive win over Orange in the Big 8 Semifinal.

There was not only proof they could play with anyone. They could beat anyone. They had won 10 of its last 11. They defeated Southern Durham less than three weeks ago, still the only team in the Big 8 to accomplish that this season. The very next night, Southern blew out Orange 81-62, despite losing leading scorer J’Tori Christmas 80 seconds into the game with an injured ankle.

All of that hope dissipated within seconds at Orange High Gymansium on Wednesday night.

The Panthers defeated the Red Wolves 76-62 in the Big 8 Semifinals at Jim King Gymnasium. With the win, the Panthers will face Southern again, this time for the Big 8 Championship on Friday night at Chapel Hill High School. Game time will be 7:30. You can hear the game on Hillsboroughsports.com.

There was some good news for the Red Wolves. Southern defeated Northern Vance 83-54, meaning Cedar Ridge will make the 3-A state playoffs as the third seed from the Big 8. The announcement of the state playoff field will be made on Saturday.

With the win, Orange improves to 16-8. Cedar Ridge drops to 17-8.

Peyton Pappas opened the game with a transition layup off a blocked shot by Jacob Thomas. It was Cedar Ridge’s only lead of the game. Not only that, but only one other CRHS player aside from Jacob Thomas scored a field goal in the first half, a Khalil Barnett jumper in the second quarter long after the Panthers had established a double-digit lead.

As usual, Orange’s Connor Crabtree was the X factor, finishing with 28 points. He hit consecutive 3-pointers in the first quarter, and finished with 10 points in the opening stanza. Daniel Mulligan, who ended with 11 points, scored on a reverse layup with :40 remaining to put Orange ahead 21-10 to finish the first quarter.

Thomas kept Cear Ridge in the game during the second quarter with nine points. He finished with 23. But after Cameron Cavanaugh hit a three-pointer, followed by Logan Vosburg’s spinning lay in that put Orange ahead 27-15, the Red Wolves never got the deficit below ten points again.

The Cedar Ridge transition games was slowed by the Panthers. Pappas finished with 12 points, but eight of those came from the foul line.

“Once he gave up the ball, we tried to keep him from getting it back. We know he handles the ball well in transition, and we tried to limit that tonight.” Orange coach Greg Motley.

Now, Orange focuses on something that’s been elusive: a conference tournament championship. Since Motley became head coach of Orange in 1998, the Panthers have never won one.

To do it, they’ll have to defeat a Southern Durham team that won the last Big 8 Tournament championship in 2014 against Orange. In the same building where they won it two years ago (Last year’s tournament was cancelled because of snow).

The victory by Orange means the Panthers will be the 2nd-seed from the Big 8 conference, which likely means a home game in the opening round of the playoffs.

Cedar Ridge: 10 15 19 18 = 62

Orange: 21 20 16 19 = 76

Cedar Ridge: Peyton Pappas 12, Khalil Barnett 8, Shane Evans 2, Jonathan Hall 2, Jacob Thomas 22, Terrrence Crawford 8, Colby Cashaw 1.

Ornage: Cameron Cavanaugh 3, Reggie Bradsher 5, Alex Long 5, Connor Crabtree 28, Daniel Mulligan 11, Logan Vosburg 21, Marquise Phelps 1, Jace-Jordan Cornell 2.

While neither team won the Big 8 Conference regular season championship, Cedar Ridge and Orange have played as well as anyone in the league over the past month.

On Wednesday night, they’ll meet again. This time with a berth in the Big 8 Championship tournament championship game on the line.

On Tuesday night, 2nd seeded Orange easily defeated Northwood 72-54 in the opening round of the Big 8 Tournament. Conor Crabtree scored 25 points as the Panthers improved to 15-8, sweeping the season series from the Chargers, who finish the year 5-19.

Meanwhile across town, Cedar Ridge advanced to the semifinals by trumping Oxford Webb 73-46. The Red Wolves didn’t even need Peyton Pappas, the leading scorer in school history, to reach double figures to win easily. Pappas finished with a season-low nine points in what’s likely his final game at Red Wolves Gymnasium.

Classmate Jacob Thomas scored 22 points to pace the Red Wolves. Colby Cashaw, in his first postseason game, came off the bench to score 12 points, a season high.

Cedar Ridge led 30-16 at the half and was never seriously challenge by the Warriors, who failed to register one player in double figures.

While Orange swept the regular season series from the Red Wolves, winning 74-67 on December 11th and 63-43 on January 11th, CRHS is playing its best basketball of the season. They’ve now won 10 of its last 11, and was the only team from the Big 8 to defeat Southern Durham during the regular season.

The fact the Battle of Hillsborough takes place hours before Duke-UNC in Chapel Hill seems natural. It’s a crosstown rivalry on one level followed by a cross county rivalry on another.

There was a mild upset on the opening night of Big 8 Tournament action. Northern Vance defeated Chapel Hill 65-61 at Tiger Gymnasium. The Vikings travel to Southern Durham on Wednesday night. The Spartans received a bye through the first round after winning the regular season championship.

Hillsboroughsports.com will broadcast the Orange-Cedar Ridge game on Wednesday night. Look for a post here at 6:45, as well as our Facebook page and Twitter page for all the action live from Jim King Gymnasium.

Cedar Ridge finished the regular season by winning 9 of its last 10 games, including Friday night’s 66-51 victory over Carrboro. They ended the regular season 16-8. Coach Clay Jones discussed preparations for the start of the Big 8 Tournament,which starts Monday when Webb visits CRHS.

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Five seniors played their final regular season home game for the Cedar Ridge boys basketball team on Friday night. Among them was the school’s all-time leading scorer, Peyton Pappas, and the second-leading scorer on this year’s team, Jacob Thomas. They talked about CRHS’ 66-51 win, which improved their record to 16-8 going into the Big 8 Tournament.

Pappas, Thomas Talk Cedar Ridge’s Win on Senior Night

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There are few things for certain as the high school basketball regular season winds down.

Last year, the chase for the Big 8 Boys regular season championship came down to the final night, where Cedar Ridge rallied from 19 points down to stun favored Orange, giving Cardinal Gibbons the crown.

Any chances of the race coming down to the final night are remote, at best. Southern Durham leads Orange by a game-and-a-half with a 9-1 conference record. The Spartans also control the tiebreaker after its 80-62 victory over the Panthers on Friday night at Southern.

The Spartans have two conference games remaining, the first coming up tonight against Northern Vance. A win clinches the regular season title and the top seed from the Big 8 going into the 3-A state playoffs.

Another certainty is Chapel Hill faces a must-win at Orange tonight. The Panthers hold 2nd place in the Big 8 at 7-2, two games ahead of CHHS. After beating Cedar Ridge 75-67 on January 5th, the Tigers dropped six straight. On Friday, the Red Wolves got revenge on CHHS, winning 60-45.

The top three teams from the Big 8 will make the playoffs, and a logjam has formed in the past two weeks. Chapel Hill holds third place at 5-4, while Northern Vance is 4-4 and Cedar Ridge is 4-5.

There’s also little doubt Cedar Ridge is playing its best basketball of the season, albeit later than Coach Clay Jones would have preferred.

After stunning Southern Durham 80-75 on Thursday night, the Red Wolves turned right back around on Friday night to beat the Tigers. By now, it’s hardly news that Peyton Pappas was the Red Wolves’ leading scorer with 20 points. What is becoming a pattern is the continued improvement of center Jonathan Hall, who had 16 points. Jacob Thomas added 12.

Since Jones inserted an extra forward into the starting lineup in Shane Hill and moved away from a three-guard setup, Hall had 14 vs. Southern and 11 vs. Oxford Webb. Tonight, the Red Wolves travel to Northwood, who they defeated 68-61 on January 8th for its first conference win of the season.

As for Orange, the planets seemed aligned to finally beat Southern on Friday night. The Panthers had won eight of its last nine, including a win over previously undefeated Goldsboro on MLK Day at Durham School of the Arts.

Plus, Southern was playing its third game in three days, hours after the Cedar Ridge loss. Turns out, Southern gave new meaning to overcoming adversity both on and off the court.

The afternoon of the Cedar Ridge game, Southern coach Kendrick Hall’s wife was on her way to the chiropractor’s office when she was involved in an automobile accident. Hall rushed to her side and missed the first half of the Red Wolves game. He gave his team pre game instructions through FaceTime, and didn’t arrive until the second half.

Once Hall’s family at home was healthy, he could finally focus on his on-court family in a battle for first place against Orange the next night What he didn’t know was how suddenly fragile his team was about to become.

Just 80 seconds into the game, leading scorer J’Tori Christmas suffered an ankle injury. He left the game, didn’t return and left the game on crutches.

Still, Southern was poised enough to bolt out to a 10-2 lead, dictate the pace of the game, increase the lead to 21 points, and withstood an Orange comeback to win.

The Panthers host Chapel Hill tonight at Jim King Gymnasium at 7.

Nothing sets off panic in the south more than snow. A little snowflake can cause a lot of headaches. Just ask local basketball coaches.

When school is cancelled, games don’t get played. That means coaches have to reschedule, which creates a frustrating cycle of phone calls, double checking with athletic directors to see when gyms are available and getting the word out to the media and fans.

Then comes the minor part of preparing for the games themselves.

On Wednesday night, Cedar Ridge had to practice for its Thursday game against Southern Durham at a nearby gym because it’s own floor was taken up by the wrestling team.

The team had barely seen each other since last Thursday, when they defeated Webb in Oxford. Four school days were cancelled. Not exactly the best circumstances going against a Spartan team that was undefeated in the Big 8.

If you wanted to bet against Southern Durham going into Thursday, obviously the odds would have been against you. If you bet on Cedar Ridge never trailing against the Spartans, you might have cleaned up for life.

But that’s what happened.

The Red Wolves jumped out to a 10-0 lead, never trailed and stunned the Spartans 70-65 on Thursday night at Red Wolves Gymnasium. Peyton Pappas led CRHS with 34 points, while Jacob Thomas added 17. Jonathan Hall added 14 as the Red Wolves won for the third time in four games to improve to 10-8, 3-5 in the Big 8.

“We did a much better job defensively,” said Cedar Ridge coach Clay Jones. “We didn’t a good job handling their press. These last three games we’ve played very well.”

Southern’s J’Tori Christmas, the Spartans’ leading scorer, finsihed with 13 points, but had only one field goal going into the fourth quarter. Rashad Dixon, matched up against Hall for much of the night, was held to 3, a season low.

Sophomore Antonio Daye led the Spartans with 22. The Spartans are 8-1, one-half game ahead of Orange for first place in the Big 8. Southern hosts Orange on Friday night, a game that will be broadcast here on Hillsboroughsports.com starting at 7.

Jones attributes his team’s turnaround to a change in philosophy. After going 3-for-47 from 3-point range during a 0-4 start in Big 8 play, he knew it was time to shift away from a three-guard starting lineup.

He inserted Shawn Hill and Shane Evans into the starting lineup and opted for a half-court oriented style.

“It’s helped take pressure off Peyton,” said Jones. “We’re getting the ball to Jacob and Jonathan more and playing much better.”

Now comes the headache of rescheduling. Coming off its biggest win of the season, Cedar Ridge has to turn right back around and travel to Chapel Hill tonight. The Tigers defeated