Month: February 2016

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.

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.

Trailing 12-0 after three matches, defending 3-A Eastern Regional Champion Eden Morehead found a way to defeat Orange 29-27. Coach Bobby Shriner discussed his team’s gallant performance, including wins from underclassmen Mitchell Askew, Gavin Wiggins, Bailey Hawkins and Payton Wilson.

How do you silence a frenzied crowd rooting against you? Ask Mitchell Askew, who scored a stunning pin on Morehead’s Austin Hunt :31 into overtime on Tuesday night.

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.

To the surprise of no one, the Orange Wrestling team will be in the same bracket as powerhouse Eden Morehead in the 3-A state dual playoffs, which begin tomorrow.

The opening two rounds will take place tomorrow at Morehead High School. Orange will open against Big 8 rival Chapel Hill, who the Panthers defeated 64-7 on Wednesday to win the conference championship.

The Morehead Panthers, 14-0 on the season, will face Terry Sanford in the first round. The winners of the respective dual matches will immediately face each other in the 2nd round.

If Orange-Morehead lock up, it will be the 5th consecutive year they’ve met in the state playoffs. Last year, Morehead defeated Orange 39-21 at Chapel Hill High on its way to its 2nd consecutive 3-A Eastern Regional championship. Fred T. Foard defeated the Panthers to win the state championship.

In 2014, Morehead also defeated Orange 46-24 on its way to the 3-A state championship, where they defeated Fred T. Foard for the title.

Morehead claimed another victory over the Panthers in the 2nd round in 2012, 34-31. In 2012, Orange defeated Morehead to win the Eastern Regional championship 40-20. Two days later, they would claim the state championship with a 32-30 victory over Southwest Randolph.

Morehead’s depth gives them another chance to claim a state championship. According to Retrorankings.com, MHS has eight grapplers ranked in the top 15 in 3-A for their respective weight classes, including Mike Jones (138) at #2, Jadakiss Jumper (145) at #1, Ben Bullins (170) #1, Will Dabbs (182) #2, and Tyler Dabbs (160) #9.

Orange has senior Joe Scott ranked #4 at 152.

A potential Orange-Morehead meeting brings about plenty of interesting individual matches, including Orange’s Bailey Hawkins vs. Morehead’s Zane Hairston at 120; Scott vs. Morehead’s Gideon Biggs at 152; Tyler Dabbs vs. Josiah Ramirez at 160 and Will Dabbs vs. Juan Torres at 182.

Hillsboroughsports.com will televise Orange’s matches tomorrow via Parascope. Look up Jeff Hamlin on Periscope for your smart phone or mobile device, and you can follow the day live.