Orange Men’s Basketball

For two schools separated by 13 miles, one would think that an Orange win over Riverside in men’s basketball would be more common. To the contrary, the Panthers hadn’t beaten the Pirates since 2013 going into Friday night. Orange stretched out to a 13-point lead and held on to beat the Pirates 59-56 at Chambers Court in Durham. Once again, Orange’s younger players led the way. This time it was freshman Kai Wade who had a career-high 19 points, including several crucial steals during the second half. Orange opened the game without a field goal in the first five minutes, but Wade kept the Panthers in the game by scoring seven of Orange’s eight points in the first quarter. Kaleb Barnhardt came away with several crucial steals and handled the ball in the fourth quarter against Riverside’s full-court pressure that they used to try to tie the game. In a strange final sequence, Orange’s Coleman Cloer threw the ball up the floor with :1.8 seconds remaining. The ball bounced off the floor and to the backboard, where Barnhardt raced over and dribbled out the final seconds. It was the first win for Orange at Riverside in recorded history. The Panthers won despite playing its third game in four days. During a four-game stretch last week, Orange went 3-1 with wins at Franklinton and Riverside. They will travel to Carrboro on Tuesday. 

FRANKLINTON–The fact that Coleman Cloer had been sick and hadn’t practiced since Thanksgiving didn’t matter in the end against Franklinton on Tuesday night.

Neither did the fact that he was a freshman. Or that a Franklinton player bumped him as he stood at the free throw line before he shot the free throws with Orange’s game against the Rams on the line with 7.2 second remaining with the Panthers trailing 66-65.

All of that was irrelevant because Cloer knew he was going to make those shots long before everyone else did.

He had just told his teammates that.

“Cole, take your time with these free throws. We need ’em,” one of Cloer’s teammates said as they huddled during a timeout.

“I’m making the free throws. Just listen to watch coach wants after them,” Cloer responded.

True to his word, Cloer calmly sank both free throws for the final points of a long night inside Red Rams Gymnasium to put the Panthers ahead 67-66.

It was the third lead change of the final minute. Then the Panthers and everyone else in the loud gymnasium watched as Mikel Alston, who had burned Orange all night, missed a stickleback 15-footer as the buzzer sounded after Camden Taylor’s outside shot fell short, preserving a 67-66 Panthers win.

Cloer finished with 22 points. Sophomore Xandrell Pinnix had 18 as the Panthers (2-1) claimed its first road victory of the season.

Alston paced Franklinton (1-1) with 27 points.

The Rams led the Panthers 63-60 with 1:12 left in the fourth quarter. Pinnix evened the game with a 3-pointer when Cloer found him out on the wing for a 3-pointer. Pinnix scored 16 of his 18 points in the second half.

With 1:03 remaining, Alston split a pair of free throws after he was fouled by Pinnix. On Orange’s next possession, Cloer missed on a drive to the basket and the ball went out of bounds of Malachi Poole. Franklinton’s Da’Kari Jones sprinted back on offense and fired a jump pass that was intercepted by Kai Wade. Cloer’s drop step in the lane fell short, but he rebounded his own miss for a tip-in that vaulted the Panthers ahead 65-64 with :22.6 remaining.

On the subsequent inbound, Alston bolted up the floor like a wide receiver and took a pass from Camden Taylor and scored on a transition lay-in to give the Rams the lead. Cloer brought the ball up the floor and was knocked to the floor by Travon Sharps, who picked up his fourth foul.

“I called timeout before the free throws because I knew he was tired,” Orange Coach Derryl Britt said. “He told everyone he was going to make those free throws. I thought ‘That’s my guy.'”

In a game that had twists and turns at warp speed, Orange led 51-44 with 6:28 to go in the fourth quarter. The Rams had two four-point trips in the final five minutes to take the lead. After Parrish Rushing split a pair from the foul line, Alston drained the first of his four 3-pointers in the fourth quarter.

With 3:52 remaining, Pinnix put Orange ahead 56-52 following a three-pointer. Sharps got a free throw following a foul on Orange’s Ryan Honeycutt. After Sharps missed the second, Jones swished a 3-pointer to tie the game.

In the first half, Orange built a 12-point lead. Cloer had 12 points in the first half while Honeycutt had six.

It’s the start of a stretch of four games over five days. The Panthers will face the North Carolina School of Science and Math on Thursday, travel to Riverside on Friday, then face Wake Forest on Saturday.

WOMEN’S GAME: FRANKLINTON 56, ORANGE 44

Asia Burton scored 19 points for Franklinton in the women’s game to lead the Red Rams past Orange 56-44. Mikayla Taborn, a 6-foot-2 junior, finished with 13 points as the Red Rams earned its first win of the season.

Orange was led by Jada Reed, who finished with 17 points. Erin Jordan-Cornell had 12 points for the Lady Panthers (1-2). Orange will try to rebound when they face the North Carolina School of Science and Math in Hillsborough on Thursday afternoon at 5 PM.

It was a night of new faces for the Orange men’s basketball team in its season-opening 55-50 win over East Chapel Hill. Orange coach Darryl Britt started four players making their varsity debut, including three freshmen. Sophomore guard Xandrell Pinnix, in only his 14th varsity game, was the most experienced starter for the Panthers. Yet Orange came away with a victory against an East Chapel Hill team that won a conference championship only two years ago. In his varsity debut, Coleman Cloer had 17 points to lead all scorers. Pinnix finished with 14 points, all in the second half. With Orange leading 25-22 at halftime, Pinnix opened the second half with consecutive 3-pointers to push the Panthers lead to nine points. Another freshman, Kai Wade, had ten points. Junior center Ryan Honeycutt, also playing his first varsity game, had eight points as the Panthers captured its season opener for the first time since 2019. Orange will travel to Chapel Hill on Tuesday night for its final game before Thanksgiving break. 

It is a new day for Orange men’s basketball.

More to the point, Coach Derry Britt has as much depth and size to start the 2022-2023 season than any other time in his five-year tenure. That’s mainly because of an infusion of youth that arrived over the summer and delivered a flashy and authoritative result against an experienced foe in the season opener on Friday night.

Facing an East Chapel Hill team that had five seniors log plenty of minutes, Britt started four players making their varsity debut, three of them freshman, and still beat the Wildcats 55-50 at Panther Gymnasium.

Freshman Coleman Cloer, the younger brother of former Orange High quarterback Garrett Cloer, led the Panthers with 17 points in his first varsity game. Sophomore Xandrell Pinnix added 14 points, all in the second half.

East, whose only lead in the game was 2-0 after a stickback basket by Makai Rhodes, was paced by junior Isaiah Skyron, a sharp shooting guard who finished with 16 points.

Last season, the Wildcats swept the regular season series from the Panthers, including a 16-point win in Hillsborough.

Orange has six players on its roster with at least one year of varsity experience, but freshmen Cloer, Mason Robinson and Kai Wade all started against the Wildcats. Center Ryan Honeycutt, a 6-foot-6 inch junior who didn’t play basketball at all last year, also made his varsity debut on Friday night.

The impetus for Britt going on started in June when Cloer and Wade, fresh out of 8th grade, started in the Orange High Summer Tournament. The Panthers won an 8-team, three-day tournament, which left Britt anticipating the season-opener like a child waiting for Christmas morning.

After five months of waiting, Britt and his team finally got to open the presents on Friday night and it went as well as expected.

“I thought we were a little nervous coming out,” Britt said. “I expected that because this was a lot of players’ first high school game. We had a decent crowd here so I knew they would be a little nervous. There’s a reason why they’re here and a reason why they’re starting for us. So I wanted them to get used to the environment and to play their game.”

With Orange leading 28-25 at the half, Pinnix opened the second half with consecutive 3-pointers. He finished with 12 points in the third quarter off four 3-pointers, which extended the Panthers’ lead to a dozen. Pinnix’s range from downtown made the difference after a cold shooting first half.

“He was 0-for-4 in the first half,” Britt said of Pinnix. ” I pulled him aside at halftime and told him they were all good looks for him and he needed to continue to shoot that. In our offense, he’s going to get those looks and he’s gotta continue to shoot that. I fully trust him and in the second half they started to fall.”

Orange bounced out to a 17-4 lead behind Cloer, whose first official basket in an Orange uniform came on a drive where he switched hands in mid-air on a lay-in, while getting fouled by Styron. Cloer scored nine points in the first quarter.

In the second quarter, the Wildcats held the Panthers to one field goal. The Wildcats closed the first half with nine consecutive points, keyed by Martez and Marquez Cotton, who each scored five points in the second quarter. Dillon McMurtry fed backup center Isaiah Smith for a lay-in with seven seconds remaining to narrow Orange’s deficit to 28-25 at halftime.

Wade, in his varsity debut, had six points in the final quarter. All of Orange’s scoring came from its five starters.

ORANGE 55, EAST CHAPEL HILL 50

EAST CHAPEL HILL-Dillon McMurtry 3, Isaiah Styron 16, Makai Rhodes 2, Thailand Evans 3, Jacob Bryan 1, Martez Cotton 12, Marquez Cotton 9, Isaiah Smith 4.

ORANGE-Mason Robinson 6, Xandrell Pinnix 14, Kai Wade 10, Coleman Cloer 17, Ryan Honeycutt 8.

3-Point Baskets: East Chapel Hill 8 (Styron 4, Martez Cotton 2, Marquez Cotton, McMurtry)

ORANGE 5 (Pinnix 4, Cloer)

FOULED OUT: East Chapel Hill (Marquez Cotton)

Orange: none