Orange Women’s Basketball

In her sophomore year, Orange center Erin Jordan-Cornell continues to collect postseason honors.

On Wednesday, Jordan-Cornell was named the District 6 Player of the Year by the North Carolina Basketball Coaches Association. Joining Jordan-Cornell on the All-District 6 team was her teammate, junior guard Aaliyah Harris. Both Jordan-Cornell and Harris were named first-team All-Big 8 Conference on Monday.

In addition, Orange coach B.J. Condron was named District 6 Coach of the Year.

The All-District 6 first-team was comprised entirely of underclassmen. East Chapel Hill freshman center Laynie Smith, Bunn sophomore Kaitlyn Adams and Chapel Hill junior Laney Beale completed the first team.

District 6 covers nine counties across the north central part of the state: Orange, Durham, Franklin, Granville, Person, Rockingham, Vance, Warren and Caswell Counties.

Like most teams across the state, the Orange women’s team was directly impacted by the pandemic. Its top shooter, Mary Moss Wirt, missed the season after committing to play softball at Elon University. Condron gave regular minutes to sophomores Jada Reed, Makalya Alston and Nikayla Whitted. The Panthers wound up with a 6-4 record in a Big 8 Conference that included powerhouse Northwood, who went to the Final Four of the 3A State Tournament.

Condron will enter the 2021-2022 season with 91 career wins at Orange.

Jordan-Cornell’s ubiquitous presence could trigger the Panthers at any moment. She led the team in scoring, rebounding, and blocked shots. Even when Orange’s offense was lethargic, such as the season finale against Southern Durham, Jordan-Cornell could find ways to come up big in the clutch. Her 3-point play against the Spartans, off an assist from junior forward Jarmil Wingate, in the final minute put Orange in the lead for the first time in the game and was enough to pull out a victory on the road.

“She does all the little things,” Condron said of Jordan-Cornell. “Not only does she perform on the court, but she is a good student teammate, and person.”

Even though she’s a 5-11 center, Jordan-Cornell was third on the team with assists.

“I think it starts with her unselfish attitude,” Condron said. “I don’t think she cares whether she scores or someone else does, as long as it gets done. She really bought into “passing up a good shot for a better shot” which is something we talked about a lot this year.”

Jordan-Cornell was also an All-Big 8 Conference performer in volleyball, where Orange upset defending 3A State Champion Chapel Hill in its season opener.

Without Wirt, Harris had a greater scoring load on her shoulders. In her third year playing varsity, she was second on the team with 10.6 points per game. She had a season-high 16 points against Southern Durham on January 22, which was Orange’s first win of the season.

“Cool that Aaliyah made first team also,” Condron said. “She works really hard on her game and showed a lot of improvement from last season.”

Orange had only one senior on the team, Jala Rainey. Jordan-Cornell, Harris, Wingate, guard Samantha George and Jada Reed are all starters expected to return in November in a brand new conference that will include powers like Eastern Alamance, Person and the aforementioned Northwood Chargers.

Orange’s 5-game winning streak set up a game against Chapel Hill on February 15 where the winner would make the state playoffs. The Tigers captured the game and lost to eventual 3A Eastern Regional Champion Asheboro in the opening round.

The Orange women’s basketball team made a living off its high-low combination in its half-court offense throughout the abbreviated season.

So it’s only natural that tandem, which proved to be a difficult matchup for many teams, would wind up on the All-Big 8 Conference team.

Junior point guard Aaliyah Harris and sophomore center Erin Jordan-Cornel were both named to the All-Conference team on Monday morning. Cedar Ridge senior guard Nadia Oswald, who played three varsity seasons, was the only Red Wolf named to the All-Conference team.

Harris, in her third year on the varsity, was the point guard for an Orange team that finished 6-4. Without backcourt mate Mary Moss Wirt, Harris was second on the team with 10.6 points per game. She led the team with 15 3-pointers and was second on the squad with 106 points.

During Orange’s five-game winning streak, Harris scored in double figures every game. She had 16 points and a season-high five assists against Southern Durham on January 22 in a 61-39 victory. In a 57-40 win at Vance County on February 6, Harris tied her season-high with 16 points. The victory led Orange to face Chapel Hill with a trip to the state playoffs on the line.

Jordan-Cornell, fresh off a strong season with the Orange volleyball team, led Orange with 11.8 points and 10.5 rebounds per game. Despite being a 5-11 center, Jordan-Cornell was also third on the team with 16 assists.

Jordan-Cornell’s best games came against Southern Durham. In Hillsborough on January 22, she had a season-high 19 points and eleven rebounds. In Orange’s season finale at Spartan Gymnasium, Jordan-Cornell finished with 14 points, including a go-ahead basket off a feed from Jarmil Wingate with 1:55 remaining in the fourth quarter after Orange trailed the entire game.

Jordan-Cornell had five double-doubles, starting with eleven points and ten rebounds on January 15 against Northwood, who would go on to win the Big 8 Championship for the second straight year. She also had 15 points and 14 rebounds against Vance County on February 6. She ended the year with 14 points and 16 rebounds against Southern.

Oswald played in four games before her senior season came to a premature end due to an injury. She had 18 points against Northern Durham on February 9. Oswald was a three-year member of the varsity team and often came up with big shots during Cedar Ridge victories. As a sophomore, Oswald drilled a key 3-pointer as the Red Wolves surprised Orange 44-37, an Orange team that would win 19 games and host a 3A State Playoff game.

Cedar Ridge was honored with the sportsmanship award. With Oswald out and other players busy with practice for other sports, the Red Wolves played several games with only five players. Against Orange, Cedar Ridge only suited up Phoenix Smith, Anjelica Carbajal, Bryn Booker, Cameron Copeland and Cierra Copeland. After the final buzzer sounded, Cedar Ridge principal Dr. Carlos Ramirez applauded the team as the exhausted players came to the bench.

Phoenix Smith was named honorable mention All-Big 8 for the Red Wolves. She played in all eight of the Red Wolves games and led the team in scoring (among players who played more than two games) with 5.3 points per game.

Junior Jarmil Wingate was named honorable mention All-Big 8 for Orange. At 5-foot-2, Wingate was still second on the team with six rebounds per game. Wingate, who broke the school record for 200 meters in her freshman year, was a regular starter at power forward for the Lady Panthers.

Northwood’s Cameron Vernon was named Big 8 Coach of the Year. The Chargers captured the Big 8 Championship for the second year in a row. Northwood finished 11-0 and ends the Big 8 season having won 22 consecutive conference games. The Chargers lost to Asheboro in the 3A Eastern Regional Championship game.

Northern Durham’s Maya Hood was named Big 8 Player of the Year.

Jarmil Wingate had a season-high 12 points to help the Orange women’s basketball team defeat Southern Durham 44-41 at Spartan Gymnasium on Tuesday afternoon. Wingate also assisted on what turned out to be the game-winning three-point play from Erin Jordan-Cornell with 1:27 remaining. Aaliyah Harris scored all eight of her points in the second half as the Lady Panthers came back from 12 down. Wingate and Harris have been teammates for the past five years on travel teams throughout the area. It’s for that reason that Harris and Wingate have been dubbed the Wonder Twins on Hillsboroughsports.com broadcasts, in honor of the 1980s SuperFriends cartoon superheroes that are relatively obscure. Despite being 5-2, Wingate is second on the team with 5.2 rebounds per contest. Orange clinched a winning season with the victory over the Spartans and remains alive for a state playoff birth. Orange is slated to wrap up the regular season against Northern Durham on Friday afternoon at Panther Gymnasium.

It wasn’t Hoosiers. It wasn’t Glory Road.

Heck, it wasn’t even The Sixth Man.

In the end, what it was was an Orange victory on a night of the strange.

Jason Franklin’s lay-in with 2:59 remaining in overtime lifted the Panthers to a 35-32 over East Chapel Hill on Thursday night at Panther Gymnasium in Hillsborough.

“Jason knows that’s his time,” said Orange coach Derryl Britt. “He’s the guy who should have the ball at that time. We talked about having the best players close games out. We’ve had close games were we’ve had to learn how to win. That’s coach speak, but it’s the truth.”

With Orange clinging to a 33-32 lead, the Panthers’ J.J. Thompson intercepted an East pass and was fouled. Thompson drained the subsequent foul shots, his only points of the game.

East Chapel Hill (8-3, 7-0), which has already clinched the Big 8 regular season championship, was led by Will Tyndall’s 15 points.

Franklin finished with 13 points for Orange (2-8, 1-6).

Going into the fourth quarter, the Panthers were lethargic offensively, but they weren’t alone. East led 21-17 going into the fourth quarter. Orange, which relies on the outside shot for most of its offense, sank only two three-pointers in the first three quarters.

East Chapel Hill led 29-22 with 3:53 after a 3-point play by Tyndall and a steal and score from Isaiah Roberson. That was East’s final field goal of the game.

The Panthers cold offense finally found its rhythm when Thompson rattled in a 3-pointer with 3:23 remaining in regulation. On East’s next possession, Kyle Stanley tied up Tyndall for a held-ball, which sent the ball back to Orange. Thompson nailed another 3-pointer to reduce East’s lead to 29-28.

After East was called for traveling, Orange missed on its next possession. Franklin made a huge steal to give the Panthers’ the ball back, then fired a 3-pointer that was a knuckleball that took a dead bounce of the heel of the rim and flatly fell through the net to put Orange ahead 31-29. It was the Panthers’ first lead since it was 2-1.

Charles Stanley sank two free throws to even the game at 31. Orange couldn’t get a shot off on its final possession, which led to a 4-minute overtime.

There was a moment of comedy early in the extra session. After Franklin’s opening field goal, Orange forced a turnover on East’s first possession. Britt asked his scorekeeper “How many timeouts do I have left?” The official trailing the play heard “time out” and immediately charged the timeout to Orange—its final timeout.

EAST CHAPEL HILL WOMEN 39, ORANGE 38

The East Chapel Hill women held off Orange 39-38, the third straight time the Wildcats won in Hillsborough.

Last Wednesday, when the Lady Panthers held off East by five points in Wildcats Gymnasium, the Wildcats had only five players in uniform. On Thursday, they had seven, but freshman center Laynie Smith made the biggest different.

Smith scored 16 points, including 14 in the second half. She knocked down two 3-pointers in the third quarter to put East ahead to stay.

In a bizarre final minute, Orange’s Aaliyah Harris knocked down two 3-pointers to narrow the deficit to 39-38. Orange fouled Abby Stone with 2.2 seconds remaining. On the front end of a 1-and-1, Stone took too long at the foul line and was called for a 10-second violation.

Then things got really weird.

With Orange trailing 39-38, Harris was set to inbounds when East’s Shariah Wells knocked down Orange’s Jarmil Wingate. Wells was whistled for a foul. Orange coach B.J. Condron thought Wingate would go to the foul line since it was East’s eighth team foul. Instead, Orange was ordered to take the ball out of bounds, which led to Harris missing a desperation heave at the buzzer from midcoast.

Afterwards, the officials admitted (under light questioning from a curious Condron) that they erroneously thought that East was in possession of the ball when Wingate was fouled, when it was really Orange inbounding the ball.

Harris scored 14 to lead Orange, who will face Chapel Hill at Smith Middle School on Friday night. Erin Jordan-Cornell had 12 for the Lady Panthers.

ORANGE 35, EAST CHAPEL HILL 32 OT

EAST CHAPEL HILL: Dillon McCafferty 3, Will Tyndall 15, Isaiah Roberson 3, Jerrod Meltzer 5, Nathaniel Stone 1, Charles Stanley 4, Jabari Best 1.

ORANGE: Jerec Thompson 14, Jason Franklin 13, J.J. Thompson 2, Kyle Stanley 2, Devin Corbett 2.

WOMEN

EAST CHAPEL HILL 39, ORANGE 38

EAST CHAPEL HILL: Riley Ellis 10, Laynie Smith 18, Abby Stone 9, Gabby Sielken 2.

ORANGE: Aaliyah Harris 14, Samantha George 4, Erin Jordan-Cornell 13, Jarmil Wingate 2, Katelyn Van Mater 2, Jada Reed 3.

There’s a saying in the Wild West that there isn’t a horse that can’t be rode and there never was a rider that can’t be thrown.

In high school sports, there never has been a flea that can’t be killed with a sledgehammer.

Orange guard Jason Franklin, playing on his senior night, had just stolen the ball from Northwood’s Drake Powell and was fouled with 1:25 remaining in regulation. With Northwood leading 45-43, Franklin stepped to the foul line with a 1-and-1 with a chance to tie the game.

It was at this moment on Tuesday night that the officials called a technical foul against Orange’s bench because a coach’s mask had fallen below his nose. The coach, according to one official, had been warned twice during the game.

Franklin missed the front end of the 1-and-1 and Orange’s fortunes nosedived. Northwood (8-2, 5-2 in the Big 8 Conference) finished the game with eight straight points to defeat the Panthers 52-43. It was the Chargers’ sixth straight victory over the Panthers.

Afterwards, a dejected Orange Coach Derryl Britt squatted in front of his bench long after the limited gathering of parents and students had departed and murmured “It hurts, man.”

Coming off a win at Vance County that ended a nine-game losing streak, Orange played with fire against a taller and faster opponent. Franklin finished with 15 points, tied for team-high honors with junior guard Jerec Thompson.

Jarin Stevenson led Northwood with 17 points, but it was Federico Whitaker whose presence was felt the most for the Chargers in the second half. Whitaker hit a trio of 3-pointers in the third quarters and came away with 16 points, 13 after halftime.

Northwood never trailed in the second half, but its largest lead with only nine. With 5:50 remaining in the fourth quarter, Northwood led 51-44, Franklin soared above Troy Arnold on an inbounds pass and found J.J. Thompson for a 3-pointer.

After Stevenson scored on a stickleback of a miss by Arnold to increase the Chargers’ lead to 53-47, J.J. Thompson drilled another 3-pointer with 4:05 left. J.J. Thompson finished with eleven points, one short of his season-high.

Northwood center Tucker Morgan got a jump hook to fall to push the Chargers’ lead to 55-50. Jerec Thompson matched that with another 3-pointer, his third of the fourth quarter, to pull Orange within 3.

Franklin carried the first half for Orange on offense, scoring 12 points. Stevenson had 13 in the first half.

Orange (1-8, 1-7) hosts East Chapel Hill, which has already clinched the Big 8 Championship, on Thursday in Hillsborough.

WOMEN’S GAME: NORTHWOOD 41, ORANGE 23

The Northwood women’s basketball team has already captured its second straight Big 8 Championship. On Tuesday night, they showed why they’re a 3A State Championship contender.

Using its depth and surplus of sizable forwards and centers, the Chargers defeated Orange 41-23. It was a season-low in total points for Orange, which had a five-game winning streak snapped.

6-0 sophomore center Ta’Keyah Bland finished with 14 points for the Chargers, who are ranked #3 in the latest 3A MaxPreps rankings. Skylar Adams added 12 for the Chargers, who have won 18 consecutive games against Big 8 Conference opponents.

Orange center Erin Jordan-Cornell led the Lady Panthers with eight. Point guard Aaliyah Harris, who had been in double figures in five straight games, was held to seven.

Orange led for much of the first quarter, but the Chargers used a 12-0 run bridging the first and second quarters to go ahead 18-8. Consecutive field goals by Jordan-Cornell at the end of the first half reduced Orange’s deficit to 18-12 at the half.

Orange could only muster two field goals in the third quarter.

The Lady Panthers will host East Chapel Hill on Thursday night.

Between games of the doubleheader, Orange held a ceremony for the only senior on the women’s team, Jala Rainey, who scored the final basket of the game.

MEN: NORTHWOOD 52, ORANGE 43

NORTHWOOD: Colby Burleson 4, Frederico Whitaker 16, Drake Powell 2, Jarin Stevenson 17, Tucker Morgan 6, Troy Arnold 5, Kenan Parrish 2.

ORANGE: Jerec Thompson 15, J.J. Thompson 11, Hunter Birch 2, Jason Franklin 15.

WOMEN: NORTHWOOD 41, ORANGE 23

NORTHWOOD: Rae McClarty 2, Ta’Keyah Bland 14, Skylar Adams 12, Myla Marve 6, Jillian McNaught 2, McKenna Snively 5.

ORANGE: Aaliyah Harris 7, Samantha George 4, Erin Jordan-Cornell 8, Jarmil Wingate 2, Jala Rainey 2.

The Orange women’s basketball team is on a five-game winning streak following Saturday’s victory over Vance County in Henderson. Orange trailed the entire first half and could have been in a deeper hole if it wasn’t for forward Jala Rainey, who came off the bench to hit six free throws. Rainey is the only senior on Orange’s team. She’s been a part of a 19-win team in her sophomore season, when she played regularly around then-seniors Icez Barnett, Lauren Cates, Grace Dively and Kate Burgess. Now in her final year at Orange, Rainey is trying to get Orange to the 3A State Playoffs for the third straight season. On Tuesday night, Rainey will be honored during pregame of Orange’s contest against Northwood, who has already wrapped up the Big 8 Championship and is ranked #3 among 3A teams in the MaxPreps rankings.