Jeff Hamlin

There was solace for Orange wrestling in Eden on Saturday, and not a moment too soon.

Seven days after coming two points short of winning the 3-A state dual championship in Monroe, the Panthers resoundingly won the 3-A Mideast Individual Tournament at Morehead Head School. Orange finished with 220.5 points, while Union Pines finished 2nd with 174.5. Cedar Ridge finished 11th with 55 points.

Overall, Orange had four wrestlers win regional championships and will send 11 grapplers to the 3-A state championship meet next weekend in Greensboro.

Perhaps most interesting (or most concerning, depending on your perspective) was the four wrestlers who captured regional titles were all underclassmen. Two of them will compete in their first state championships next weekend.

Junior Payton Wilson, currently ranked #1 in the state at 220 by Retroranking.com who finished runner-up in the state last season, continued his dominant form by scoring a 16-1 technical fall over Morehead’s Holden Bailey in the championship match. Wilson, who received scholarship offers from Clemson, Notre Dame, Auburn and Florida State last week, pinned both of his opponents in previous matches on Saturday to improve to 42-0 on the season.

It’s Wilson’s 2nd regional championship. He defeated Morehead’s Cameron Sanders 8-3 in 2016.

The most dramatic championship match on the afternoon came at 120, where sophomore Gavin Wiggins earned his first regional championship, holding off Dallis Simmons of Terry Sanford 5-4. Wiggins earned his spot in the final by beating Josh Yeshulas of Union Pines 9-7. Wiggins is now 44-9 this season. It will be his first state championship appearance.

Also earning his first regional championship was junior Josiah Ramirez. He defeated Terry Sanford’s Ferris Allen 7-1 for the championship. In the semifinals, he decisioned Morehead’s Kyler Whicker 10-5, his 50th win of the season.

Sophomore Levi Anderson won his first regional championship at 138, beating Morehead’s Logan Howell 15-7. Anderson had a thrilling semifinal match, scoring a takedown to defeat Northern Guilford senior Hunter Elliott  6-4 in overtime. Anderson’s record is 37-10.

At 106, Orange’s Mitchell Askew is headed to the state championship after finishing runner-up at the regionals. Askew reached the finals by beating Western Alamance’s Garrett Johsnon 10-8. Northern Guilford’s Heath Gonyer defeated Askew for the championship 9-5. Askew will enter Friday’s opening round at 42-16.

Junior Bailey Hawkins finished 2nd at 132 after pinning Chapel Hill’s Wesley Kelley at 5:59 in the semifinals to improve to 34-7. Jacob Toms of Morehead defeated Hawkins in the final 10-2. It will be Hawkins’ 2nd apperance in the state tournament after finishing 2nd at 120 in the 2016 Regionals.

At heavyweight, Daylen Alston advanced to the finals with a pin of Eastern Guilford’s Tyray Vanscoy in 2:55. George Blackstock of Morehead, who defeated Alston in the 2016 Dual Team Playoffs last year in a bout that determined the entire match, knocked off Alston 12-5. It will be Alston’s first state championship appearance.

Sophomore Avery Jenkins finished 4th at 145 to punch a ticket to Greensboro. Jenkins advanced to the consolation finals by pinning Kyle Webb of Morehead in 2:28.

Senior Charlie Fitzpatrick earned fourth place at 152 after pinning Douglas Byrd’s Warren McLeod in 1:45.

Two Hillsborough wrestlers advanced to Greensboro at 182. Orange’s Braden Homsey faced Cedar Ridge’s Demarcus Smith in the semifinals, a match that Homsey won 13-3. Northwood’s Hunter Queen pinned Homsey in 1:56 for the regional championship.

Smith finished fourth at 182. Smith ensured a spot in the states by defeating Southern Durham’s Ryan Jones 4-3.

The Red Wolves’ Colin Davis captured a spot in the state tournament by finishing third at 160. He decisioned Morehead’s Charles White 7-3 in the consolation semifinals. Davis is now 34-11.

At 195, Orange’s Jamar Davis finished 3rd by pinning Gray Creek’s Dylan Porter for the 2nd time in a week. Davis also pinned Porter during last week’s 3-A Eastern Regional Dual Team final at Gray’s Creek. Davis scored four pins in the regional tournament to improve to 46-10.

After coming one takedown short of its sixth state championship last weekend in Monroe, the Orange Wresting team is off to a strong start at the 3-A Mideast Regionals.

On day one of the regionals at Morehead High School in Eden, eleven Orange grapplers qualified for next weekend’s state championships at the Greensboro Coliseum.

In addition, three Cedar Ridge wrestlers all also headed to the state finals.

Cedar Ridge’s Demarcus Smith also punched his ticket to Greensboro after pinning Giovon Poirer of Lee County in 3:24. Smith will face Orange’s Braden Homsey on Saturday morning. Homsey outscored Chris Kelly of Union Pines 12-10 in Friday’s 2nd round. In the first round, he pinned Eastern Guilford’s Dylan Dains in :45.

At 160, Cedar Ridge’s Colin Davis is still in contention for a regional championship. Davis started the day with a pin of Northern Vance’s Josh Florentino in 3:07. He advanced to the semifnals with a 9-5 decision over Chapel Hill’s William Hess.

At 113, Darius McLeod pinned Chapel Hill’s Zin Maung in 4:24. He faces Rockingham County’s Noah Wilson on Saturday. McLeod improved to 20-12 on the season.

After day one, Orange leads the overall team standings with 74 points. Union Pines is 2nd with 61.5. Morehead has 50.5. Chapel Hill is in 5th with 35.5, while Cedar Ridge is tenth with 26.

Orange’s Payton Wilson, ranked #1 in the state at 220, improved to 37-0 by pinning Dan Freeman of Northern Guilford in :52 He faces Big 8 rival Joseph Cannon of Chapel Hill in Saturday’s semifinal.

At heavyweight, Daylan Alston pinned Union Pines’ Jessie McLean in :57. Alston is now 37-6 with 22 pins this season.

Coming off a thrilling 3-2 victory last Saturday over Piedmont’s Mathis Strickland, Josiah Ramirez scored two pins on Friday. For the second time in eight days, he pinned Gray Creek’s Leo Walsh, this time in :27. In th second round, he pinned Eastern Guilford’s Justin Spruill in 4:56. Ramirez takes on Morehead’s Kyler Whicker (36-6) on Saturday morning. Ramirez is now 47-4 with 28 pins, tied with Charlie Fitzpatrick for the team lead.

Speaking of Fitzpatrick, he’s in the semifinals at 152 after pinning Jordan Isenour of Morehead in 4:21.

At 120, sophomore Gavin Wiggins scored an 11-3 major decision over Northern Guilford’s Max Benfield 11-3. Wiggins, now 40-9, faces Union Pines Josh Yeshulas.

A week after scoring his 100th victory, junior Bailey Hawkins shutout Northwood’s Carter Stallings 13-0. Awaiting Hawkins in the semifinals is Chapel Hill’s Wesley Kelley.

Sophomore Levi Anderson is going to his first state tournament at 138 pounds. He opened Friday by pinning Sabeon Campbell of Douglas Byrd in 2:22. Anderson advanced to the semifinals with a 18-9 major decision against Eastern Alamance’s Andrew Dawson.

The fastest pin of the day by a Panther belonged to Avery Jenkins at 145, who finished off Cedar Ridge’s Ruffin Wyrick in :17. Jenkins, a sophomore, moved on to the semifinals with a 10-1 major decision over senior Carson Amy of Northwood.

At 106, Mitchell Askew improved to 39-8 by pinning Steven Gaus of Western Alamance in 1:57. It was Askew’s 20th pin of the season. He faces Garrett Johnson of Western Alamance on Saturday morning.

After a stunning victory last weekend in the state dual championship match, Jamar Davis continued a strong sophomore season with two pins on Friday. He defeated McMichael’s Khalil Ngom in 2:40, then pinned Western Alamance’s Trevon Hart in 3:37. Davis improved to 42-8 with 26 pins.

If Orange holds on to the overall team lead, it will be its fifth victory in a individual tournament this season. They already have captured championships in the Jim King Invitational, Southwest Guilford Invitational, Eastern Alamance Invitational and Roselle Park Tournament in New Jersey.

Thanks in part to the North Carolina High School Athletic Association expanding the state basketball playoffs to 64 teams in each classification, the term “bubble teams” is now coined freely in prep basketball.

HighSchoolOT.com editors now work well into the early morning hours to determine the “last four in” and “first four out,” just as Joe Lunardi does. Only for a much bigger paycheck on a network with far less integrity.

The Cedar Ridge boys squad is a bubble team which helped its cause on Friday night by beating Roxboro Community 51-48 in Person County. In among his final games in a Red Wolves uniform, center Colby Cashaw was the most steady player on the floor.

Cashaw finished with 18 points and 13 rebounds as Cedar Ridge improved to 9-15. Coincidentally, that was also Cashaw’s stat line in Thursday 66-55 loss at Burlington Cummings.

“He finished his regular season career on a good note,” said Cedar Ridge Coach Clay Jo

With the NCHSAA allowing teams to subtract four nonconference losses because of Hurricane Matthew (which caused teams in eastern North Carolina to push football season one week back, leading to basketball teams playing shorthanded to open the season because the football playoffs ran long), Cedar Ridge has a 9-11 record. Projections by HighSchoolOT.com currently have the Red Wolves as among the last four out of the state playoffs, along with Concord, North Gaston and St. Stephens (all of whom have 9-11 records).

For Cedar Ridge, that makes Monday’s Big 8 Quarterfinal matchup against Northern Vance of paramount importance.

Unfortunately, Red Wolves coach Clay Jones had had to work hard just to put a complete team on the floor. Freshman B.J. Freeman missed Friday’s game because of a disciplinary measure. Freshman Mekai Collins missed Thursday’s game against Cummings, but he made up for it by hitting possibly the biggest shot of the game on Friday.

Moments after Roxboro’s Dylan Jones put the Bulldogs ahead 45-42 with a  three-pointer, Collins tied the game with his own trey with 3:37 remaining. Cashaw drained two free throws to give Cedar Ridge the lead for good 47-45. After Khalil Hill drained a jumper to extend CRHS’ lead to 49-45, Collins sank two free throws with :19 remaining. Roxboro’s last-ditch three-pointer from C.J. Rios was an airball as time expired.

Collins finished with eleven points, seven steals and three assists.

“He’s similar to the give-and-take relationships I’ve had with other players before,” said Jones. “He makes you want to pull your hair out sometimes, but he’s a gamer.”

Dylan Jones was the only Roxboro player in double figures with 14 points.

Coach Clay Jones earned a victory in his return to his hometown. Jones grew up in Roxboro and played basketball at nearby Person High School.

“I had a lot of family, friends and classmates in the house tonight,” said Jones. “I’ve known (Roxboro Community Coach Justin) Bettendorf for a long time. We’re very good friends. He’s done a really good job with those guys.”

The winner of Northern Vance-Cedar Ridge on Monday night advances to face Orange in the Big 8 Conference semifinals on Wednesday night in Hillsborugh.

CEDAR RIDGE 51, ROXBORO COMMUNITY 48

CEDAR RIDGE–Dmonte Kinney 2, Khalil Barnett 7, Terrence Crawford 7, Khalil Hill 4, Colby Cashaw 18, Mekai Collins 11, John Vaughn 2.

ROXBORO COMMUNITY–Tajarrell Wright-Young 8, Te’Shon Clayton 7, Dylan Jones 14, Spencer Blalock 8, J.R. Paylor 4,

Most years, high school basketball nerds sit around on the final night of the regular season trying to figure out tiebreakers, wait for Maxpreps to update scores from around the state, and wonder if coaches will ever return text messages in order to get that darned final score from Oxford that will determine 4th place from 5th in the Big 8 Conference.

This year, the nerds slept easy.

By the end of Tuesday night, the field for the Big 8 Boys and Girls Basketball Tournament had already been set.

In both the boys and girls ranks, Orange captured the regular season championship. Thus, both teams will get a bye into the semifinals.

The respective tournaments begin Monday night. The only change this year is for Championship Friday. The past two tournaments, Chapel Hill High has hosted the boys and girls championship games. This year, the higher seed will host the tournament championship game.

In the boys tournament, second-seeded Southern Durham (10-2) hosts seventh-seeded Northwood (2-10) at 7:30. The winner faces the matchup between #3 Chapel Hill (8-3, with one game against Northern Vance set for Saturday) vs. sixth-seeded J.F. Webb (2-10, earned the tiebreaker by sweeping Northwood) on Wednesday night.

Also on Monday night, fifth-seeded Cedar Ridge (3-9) travels to Northern Vance (5-6) on Monday. The winner goes to Orange on Wednesday night.

In the girls tournament, second-seeded Northwood (10-2) hosts Northern Vance (0-10) on Monday night at 7. The winner of that game will face the winner of the second quarterfinal between third-seeded Southern Durham (7-4) and sixth-seeded Chapel Hill (1-10) at 6 PM.

The other quarterfinal features J.F. Webb (6-6) hosting Cedar Ridge (5-7). The victor travels to Orange for Monday night’s semifinal at 6 PM.

The Chapel Hill-Southern Durham game may be a milestone. There’s been speculation that Chapel Hill coach Sherry Norris, who has led the Tigers girls squad for 40 years, may retire at year’s end. Norris has yet to make an official announcement.

Northern Vance may be fatigued against Cedar Ridge by the time Monday rolls around. The Vikings have a Saturday game at Chapel Hill, which was postponed from last week because of the water main break in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area. That will conclude a stretch of four games in five days. NVHS defeated Northwood 68-55 in Pittsboro on Tuesday, knocked off J.F. Webb 64-55 on Thursday and lost to Southern Durham 82-59 on Friday night.

Cedar Ridge and Northern Vance split the season series. The Red Wolves defeated the Vikings 39-36 on December 13. The Vikings routed CRHS 68-52 on January 20.

The Cedar Ridge girls team defeated J.F. Webb 45-43 on February 3 in Hillsborough behind 22 points from Carrie Davis. Webb captured the first matchup against CRHS 32-23 on January 25.

You can hear Cedar Ridge vs. Northern Vance boys on Monday night here on HillsboroughSports.com.

Apropos on senior night, it was Orange’s only two seniors who led the Panthers to its first outright conference championship since 2005.

Connor Crabtree and Logan Vosburg each had 18 to propel Orange past J.F. Webb 72-56 at a sultry Jim King Gymnasium on Tuesday night.

Orange finishes the regular season 18-5 and takes the Big 8 regular season championship with a 11-1 record. The Panthers will have a bye into the semifinals of next week’s Big 8 Tournament, and won’t play again until Wednesday against an opponent to be determined.

While eight days off sounds excessive, the Panthers could use the rest. Tuesday marked Orange’s seventh game in 14 days, which may explain the Panthers’ sluggish start against the Warriors (4-17, 2-9). Webb bounced out to a 20-15 lead after Kenneth Veney came off the bench to score nine points in the opening ten minutes. Kendall Baskett added eight in the first half for the Warriors, and finished with a team-high 12.

“We like to play fast,” said Orange Coach Greg Motley, who was honored in pregame for his 20th anniversary as Orange coach. “We were playing kind of slow. We tried to change defenses and picked up the tempo as the game went on. Down the stretch, I thought we opened it up a little bit.”

Orange used its patented full-course press to finish the first half on a 12-0 run, creating four turnovers that became eight points. It started when Vosburg scored on a reverse layup. Crabtree stole the subsequent inbounds pass, leading to a Mitch Portman tip-in to give Orange a 34-33 lead. As Orange pressed, Vosburg created another turnover, leading to a breakaway lay-in by Crabtree. Webb committed a 10-second violation on its next possession, and Veney picked up his third foul moments later. He only scored one point in the second half. Portman sank two free throws and Crabtree scored on a lay-in after another Orange steal to give the Panthers a 40-33.

Orange was never seriously threatened in the second half, pushing the lead to 60-40 midway through the fourth quarter. Portman finished with ten points, while Joey McMullin and Eli Haithcock each had eight.

Before the game, Vosburg received a commemorative game ball for scoring his 1,000th point last week.

“I didn’t know that were doing that,” said Vosburg. “I knew I had 1,000 points, but I didn’t know that was going to happen. That’s one I’m going to remember.”

Orange is assured the top seed for the Big 8 Conference going into the state playoffs, regardless of how the Big 8 Tournament plays out. Recent projections from WRAL show Orange will likely receive the #1 seed for the Mideast, meaning Orange will host playoff games as long as they keep winning.

For now, Orange has eight days off, which Motley views as a blessing and a curse. How will he handle it?

“I don’t know,” said Motley. “We don’t want to be off that long, I’ll put it that way. At the same time, hopefully it will let us rest a little bit. Logan and Connor play a bunch of minutes.”

ORANGE 72, WEBB 56

WEBB: Unique Heggie 4, Shamar Coachman 2, Kendall Baskett 12, Solomon Serba-Davis 8, Shadarius Wilkerson 6, Kenneth Veney 10, Shurone Harris 6, Tyrone Clark 3, Jordan Barnette 5.

ORANGE: Mitch Portman 10, Connor Crabtree 18, Joey McMullin 8, Logan Vosburg 18, Eli Haithcock 8, Morgan Paschall 4, Kendall Whitted 5, Treshon Richardson 1.

On Tuesday night, the Orange Men’s Basketball team earned its first outright conference championship since 2005 by beating J.F. Webb 72-56. Coach Greg Motley was honored before the game for coaching Orange for 20 years.

Orange Coach Greg Motley Talks Winning the Big 8 Regular Season Title & Senior Night

On a night where he was honored during his 20th season as Orange Coach, Greg Motley led the Panthers past J.F. Webb 72-56. It’s Orange’s first outright conference championship in 12 years.

On senior night, Logan Vosburg scored 18 points as Orange clinched the Big 8 Regular Season Championship, beating J.F. Webb 72-56. Vosburg recently passed 1,000 points for his Orange career.

Orange senior Logan Vosburg Discusses Winning the Big 8 Regular Season Titl

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