The first Big 7 Conference women’s basketball championship will boil down to the final game of the regular season.
Playing its fourth game in five days on Tuesday night, the Orange women easily took care of business with a 59-25 victory over J.F. Webb in Hillsborough. The Lady Panthers are tied with Seaforth for first place in the Big 7 after the Hawks defeated South Granville 63-36 on Tuesday.
The two teams will meet in Pittsboro on Thursday night, each team with a 10-1 league record. The Hawks defeated the Lady Panthers 43-39 on January 20, but lost to South Granville 41-25 in Creedmoor on January 16.
Orange (15-6) forced six turnovers on Webb’s first six possessions to secure a wire-to-wire win. Tolliver scored the first six points. A field goal from Natalie Roberson led to a Webb timeout just 1:56 into the game.
With the Lady Panthers leading 20-10 at the end of the first quarter, Orange outscored the Warriors 26-4 in the second quarter to make the game a rout. Senior Alexis Stephens, in her final regular season home game, finished with ten points and four rebounds.
Orange outrebounded the Warriors 46-32 and made 18 steals. The Lady Panthers forced 21 turnovers and built its lead up to 50-14 after a lay-in by Roberson, which triggered a running clock.
Eleven Orange players scored, including the final basket by Mia Blake on a steal and lay-in, which sent the Panther bench into a frenzy.
Orange hasn’t won a regular season conference championship since 1997, when they won the Big 8 title with players like Kaylen Campbell, who is now an assistant for Orange head coach Josh Underwood, and Mia Davidson.
Orange will face Seaforth tonight at 6:45 in Pittsboro.
