Orange Men’s Basketball

After winning a game in the state playoffs and being one of only three teams in the state to beat Person this season, the Orange men’s basketball team had three players named to the All-Central Conference team.

Junior point guard Kai Wade, senior shooting guard Xandrell Pennix and senior forward Freddy Sneed were honored following a 19-9 season, the most wins for Orange men’s basketball since the 2016-2017 season.

Pennix surpassed 1,000 career points in Orange’s 70-45 win over Southern Alamance in the quarterfinals of the Central Conference Tournament on February 17 in Hillsborough. Pennix’s brightest moment came in the Panthers’ memorable 67-65 win at Person on January 9. The Rockets led 28-9 early in the second quarter but the Panthers stormed back to win. With Wade in foul trouble, Pennix led the Panthers with 19 points. In his final game in Hillsborough, Pennix truly saved his best for last. He finished with a season-high 23 points in a win over C.B. Aycock in the opening round of the 3A State Playoffs. He added six rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Against Chapel Hill on December 10, Pennix scored 17 points as the Panthers defeated the Tigers 65-58. It was Orange’s first win over Chapel Hill since 2019. He had a string of six consecutive games in double-figures during January.

In his third straight year as Orange’s starting point guard, Wade immediately set the tone for the season when he scored a career-high 30 points in a win over Voyager Academy on November 15. He opened the season with ten consecutive games in double-figures. He scored 18 points against Mt. Zion Christian Academy on November 22, a 60-56 Orange win. Against Western Alamance on January 24, Wade scored 23 points as the Panthers won for the fourth straight time in Elon. The following game, Wade scored 21 points in a win over Walter Williams in Hillsborough, which was the Panthers sixth straight victory over the Bulldogs.

Despite being in foul trouble for most of the game, Wade tied his season-high with seven assists in the win over Person. He also had seven assists against the Ivahoe Knights from Australia in a special game played at Northeast Guilford High School on December 23.

Wade led the team with 14.9 points per game. In eleven of Orange’s last 12 games, Wade scored in double-figures. That included 19 points against Southern Alamance on February 7 in Graham. In the state playoff win over C.B. Aycock, Wade scored 16 points. Wade also led the team with 3.7 assists per game despite the Panthers losing leading scorer Coleman Cloer, who transferred to Caldwell Academy last summer. He also led the team with 3.7 steals per game.

Sneed was the defensive spark plug for an Orange team that made midcoast turnovers in trademark. Sneed averaged a career-best 10.3 points per game in his fourth year at the varsity level.

Sneed notched his career-high twice this season. He scored 21 points in a win over East Chapel Hill on December 17 in Hillsborough. Against Williams on January 28, he also scored 21 points.

In the win over Mt. Zion Christian Academy, Sneed had a crucial dunk that helped sew up the win over the Warriors. Sneed finished with nine points. He also had five steals.

After being more of a role player in his sophomore season, Sneed took on more of a scoring role this year. He started the season with 12 points in the victory over Voyager Academy. He scored in double-figures 14 times this year. Sneed had seven straight games in double-figures as the season wound down, including 14 points against Cedar Ridge on January 31 at Panther Gymnasium.

Against Southern Alamance in the Central Conference Tournament, he scored a career-high seven steals. Sneed had six assists in the win over Chapel Hill. He also had 17 points against the Ivanhoe Knights, which included a spectacular dunk in the second quarter.

Photo by Phil Stapleton 

He commuted daily from Greensboro to Hillsborough, rolling up the school entrance hill inside his trademark Volkswagen Bug.

Such was the dedication of Richard Lyons, who spent much of his life coaching young people in baseball, track and field (which he introduced to Orange County Schools), men’s basketball and in life.

“If he got worn down by all that driving, you didn’t know it,” said Wayne Bynum, one of his former players.

The original Athletic Director at Stanford Junior High School, Lyons passed away last month from pneumonia after suffering a fall at his home.

Lyons was a trendsetter in Hillsborough youth sports during integration. His sacrifices and commitment greatly benefitted northern Orange County, but it came with a heavy price personally.

“As I look back on Mr. Lyons as a coach, I remember him as a guy who could get things out of you that you didn’t know you had in you.,” said Jim Gentry, a member of Orange High’s 1969 3A State Championship team, where Lyons was an assistant coach on the staff of Ken Mauer. “He believed competition brought out the best in a player.”

Lyons was the Athletic Director of Stanford when the school opened in 1969. In the spring of the school’s first academic year, Lyons led Stanford’s baseball team to the conference championship. Gentry was one of the original Chargers.

“I met Coach Lyons for the first time last April at our celebration of the 1969 State Championship Team,” said Anne Purcell, Chairwoman of the Orange County School Board. “I was immediately taken by his wonderful smile and his interaction with the players on the team. Many of the players on the championship team he coached at Central High School and had in Physical Education at Central High. Anyone watching immediately knew that there was a special bond between them. They respected him and he respected each one of them, over 50 years after being their teacher.”

Lyons was the head coach of the Orange men’s basketball team for five years in the 1970s and won several conference championships. He was on the sidelines when Ronnie McAdoo scored 53 points against Durham High School in 1977, still the school record. McAdoo would go on to play at Old Dominion. His son, James Michael McAdoo, suited up for North Carolina from 2011-to-2014 and now plays professionally in Japan.

Yet Lyons referred to his time at Stanford as his glory years. It’s where he was the Athletic Director and coached a varsity of sports.

Lyons had many motivational slogans, one of which was “There is no success without stress.” His words were sired from a lifetime of battling racism, including several instances when innocent situations nearly turned fatal.

His first job after graduating from North Carolina A&T was teaching at Brunswick County in Shallotte. Living in Longwood, he was roommates with a farmer who wore an eyepatch to mask a lost eye and called Lyons “fez,” short for “professor.” He battled the coastal heat and taught inside classrooms that lacked air conditioning but offered plenty of gnats.

After two years in Brunswick County, Lyons arrived to the place where he would build his legacy. He was hired as the junior varsity boys basketball coach at Central High School, the all-Black school during a time when Hillsborough was still segregated. In order to fulfil contractural obligations, Lyons was required to establish a residence in town, so he stayed at a local rooming house.

“He was someone extremely important to Stanford Junior High,” said Nick Walker, who was a physician education teacher at Stanford who eventually coached men’s and women’s tennis at Orange High, Chapel Hill and East Chapel Hill. “He did a lot to organize the school athletics and meant a lot to people. His word was his bond.”

In his spare time, Lyons took graduate courses at North Carolina Central and UNC-Chapel Hill. On Saturdays, he would travel to the county prison farm and coached minimum security felons.

“A lot of folks said that I was crazy to do this,” Lyons wrote in his book “From Start to Finish.” “But I knew that there were a lot of folks out there on the street who were worse than the prisoners. My thinking was that they just had not been caught.”

He would take the prisoners to Chapel Hill for basketball and softball games, something that ended when the guards noticed inmates smelling of alcohol after the obligatory search. It turned out that some of the inmates had been drinking when supposedly going to the woods to relieve themselves.

Lyons was elevated to varsity men’s basketball coach at Central High in 1965.

Eventually, he would join the Orange High staff when the school was integrated in the academic year of 1968-1969.

It was a time filled with tension that often spilled into violence.

In his book, Lyons details one incident were his Volkswagen overheated along U.S. 70 in Hillsborough on his way back to Greensboro. After pulling up to a nearby Exxon, he told the station attendant that his fan belt had broken and needed it replaced. The attendant responded he only provided gas. When Lyons asked for an adjustable wrench, the attendant went inside and returned with a gun. Instead of shooting, the attendant attempted to hit Lyons with the gun and it turned into a struggle where the firearm discharged. Ultimately, the attendant told Lyons to leave or else he would kill him.

Lyons reported the situation to police, where he ran into resistance from some skeptical officers. Ultimately, Lyons didn’t pursue charges based on the fear of a public backlash.

Of the five players on Orange’s 1969 3A State Championship team, four were starters on Lyons’ final squad at Central High School–Roosevelt Chavious, Fred Chavious, Johnny Crump and Calvin Wade.

“Coach Lyons treated me like I was his son,” said Roosevelt Chavious.  “I used to spend 2-3 weeks during the summer at his home and played summer league basketball through the recreation center where he worked. During my senior year he took me to visit colleges, even though he was no longer my coach, and thought Winston-Salem State University was a good choice. He even came to some of my games and would wait and talk to me afterwards.”

Last May, Lyons returned to Hillsborough for a ceremony to honor the 1969 State Championship team organized by various prominent members of the Orange County community. After the team waited 55 years to receive its state championship rings following its victory over Madison-Mayodan inside Sykes Gymasnium at Durham High School, Lyons and his players got their hardware last spring.

“It was probably best I didn’t get my state championship ring until last year,” Bynum said. “If I had gotten it in 1969, I would have lost it a long time ago.”

Desean Motley: The former quarterback for the Orange football team and guard for the basketball team has been named the new head coach of the Division II Lees-McRae men’s basketball team. Motley has been an assistant coach for the Bobcats since 2017. He has served on the staff of Steve Hardin, who resigned after 14 years earlier this month. Motley is a 2013 graduate of Orange High who was the leading scorer on the men’s basketball team his senior year. He played for his father, Greg Motley, the all-time winningest head coach in Orange men’s basketball history. Desean was also the quarterback at the dawn of the Orange football revival under former head coach Pat Moser. With Motley operating the single-wing offense, the Panthers went 11-3 in 2012, its first 10-win season since 1978. Motley was behind center when Orange defeated Eastern Alamance 14-13 in the 3A State Quarterfinals. His appointment as the head coach at Lees-McRae capped an incredible week for the Motley family. Greg Motley led the Southern Durham men’s basketball team to a win over Swansboro at Lawrence-Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem to capture the Spartans’ first Eastern Regional championship since 1959.

Mia Davidson: The Diablos Rojos del Mexico have advanced to the championship series  of the Mexican Softball League. The Diablos defeated Charros de Jalisco three-games-to-one in a best-of-five series. In the fourth and deciding game on Saturday, the Diablos won 7-3. Davidson hit two home runs in game three, which Charros won 17-9.

Takia Nichols: In its first MEAC series of the year, North Carolina Central was swept by Howard at Nationals Youth Park in Washington, D.C. this weekend. Nichols hit her first home run of the season on Saturday, a two-run blast in the third. The Bison came back to win 6-5. On Sunday, Nichols hit a solo home run in the fifth that put the Eagles ahead 5-4. Nichols started the game with a RBI double in the first inning. The Bison scored four runs in the fourth inning to beat the Eagles 8-5. On Wednesday, the Eagles defeated North Carolina A&T 4-3 at Thomas Brooks Park in Cary. Nichols drove in the game-winning run with a sacrifice fly in the ninth inning.

Carson Bradsher: The former Orange High softball shortstop was named the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Player of the Week. Playing for Division III Averett College in the Grand Slam Triangle Classic at Walnut Creek Softball Complex in Raleigh, Bradsher hit .600 over eight games. She scored eight runs and stole six bases in six attempts. In a 2-1 win over #19 Muskingham, Bradsher finished 2-for-3. On March 8, Bradsher went 4-for-4 with two runs scored and a stolen base in an 8-1 Cougars win. On Saturday, North Carolina Wesleyan swept a doubleheader from Averett in Rocky Mount. Bradsher went 4-for-7 with a run scored in the doubleheader. Averett is 8-8.

Ava Lowry: Starting for N.C. Wesleyan at shortstop, Lowry hit .500 in the Battling Bishops doubleheader sweep of Averett. In a 12-3 nightcap win, Lowry went 2-for-3 with two RBIs, driving in two runs with a single during a six-run 3rd inning. In the opener, Lowry went 1-for-3. N.C. Wesleyan went 4-2 in the Grand Slam Triangle Classic. Lowry hit .467 over the six games. Wesleyan defeated #23 Randolph-Macon 4-2 on March 8, which included Lowry hitting a home run. She finished 2-for-3 in a 15-5 win over Randolph. Lowry is hitting .282 over the first 16 games.

Mary Moss Wirt: The Elon softball team grabbed a series from Hampton at Pirates Softball Field this weekend. Wirt started Saturday’s game as a designated player and drew a bases-loaded walk in Hampton’s 4-3 victory over the Phoenix. Wirt also scored a run as a pinch-runner in Elon’s 13-1 win over the Pirates on Friday. On march 7, Elon defeated Hofstra 9-5. Wirt had a two-run double in the second inning.

Olivia Aitkin: The former Cedar Ridge Red Wolf started both games in centerfield as Division III Amherst started its season with a sweep of Southern Maine and Macalester in Clermont, FL this weekend. Amherst will face the University of Chicago and Endicott College on Monday.

Brianne Foster: The Wake Tech Community College Eagles swept four straight games over Southwest Virginia last week. Foster started at catcher in the Eagles 11-1 win on Saturday.

The clever way of putting the new conference realignment plan for Cedar Ridge and Orange would be:

tired: trips to Alamance County.

Wired: trips to Granville County.

But that isn’t the truth. The fact is most, though certainly not all, of the athletes and coaches across both schools aren’t tired of the rivalries that have built up over the past four years in the Central Conference, predominantly comprised of teams from Alamance County.

The days of the Central Conference will end in May.

On Wednesday, the North Carolina High School Athletic Association released its final conference realignment plan. Orange and Cedar Ridge will remain in a conference together, both categorized as 5A teams. The new league, which hasn’t been named, will also include J.F. Webb, South Granville, Durham School of the Arts, Seaforth and Carrboro.

Cedar Ridge and Orange have been conference rivals in various leagues since 2012, when Cedar Ridge returned to the 3A ranks after being a 2A squad and the Hillsborough teams were placed in the old Big 8 Conference.

For the first time since 2012, Cedar Ridge will be in a split classification conference. Carrboro will be a 4A team in the new league, while the other six teams will be 5A squads. The last time Orange was in a split league was in the 2008-2009 academic year, when they were in the 2A/1A Mid-State Conference.

Under the new arrangement, Person will maintain its rivalries with the Alamance County schools. The Rockets will play in a three classification league with Walter Williams, Eastern Alamance, Southern Alamance, Southeast Alamance, Graham, Cummings and Western Alamance.

The realignment committee had a tall task of trying to maintain conference rivalries as the NCHSAA expanded from a four classification system, which dates back to 1960, to eight classifications in order to rectify the demands of one of the fastest growing states in the country.

The second draft of conference alignment was released in January. It proposed Orange and Cedar Ridge with South Granville, Webb, Seaforth, and DSA in a league comprised only of 5A schools. Orange principal Jason Johnson and athletic director Jason Knapp both made personal appeals to the realignment committee in Chapel Hill last month, asking that Orange remain with their current conference rivals.

“My reservation about going into a new conference is we’re killing our rivalries with Alamance County,” Johnson said last month during a basketball doubleheader. “We have longstanding rivalries. Eastern Alamance, Western Alamance, Williams. Those have been some of our biggest rivals. The community expects us to play those teams.”

The only change in the third and final draft was the addition of Carrboro, which originally was slated to be in a league with schools from Chatham and Randolph Counties.

Once that draft was issued, Johnson and Knapp sensed the direction things were going and didn’t bother making another appeal.

It’s widely believed the impetus to keep the Alamance County schools together was financial. With seven of the eight schools within Alamance County, it simply keeps schools from traveling long distances for league games.

The creation of the Central Conference in 2021 reinvigorated local rivalries with Eastern Alamance and Person, which had been put on the backburner for years. It created a dichotomy.

In regards to football, the timing couldn’t have been worse. After Payton Wilson graduated in 2017, the talent level around Orange football hasn’t been at the level of its peak in the 2010s under Pat Moser. At another time, an Orange-Eastern Alamance conference rivalry would have resulted in sellout crowds in Hillsborough and Mebane, particularly since they traditionally close the regular season against each other.

Even with Orange going seven straight years without a winning season, the attendance figures for conference football games against Alamance and Person County schools were strong. It was something athletic officials around Orange and Cedar Ridge were reluctant to part with.

For other sports, the Central Conference led to unprecedented success for the two Hillsborough schools in various sports. In the opening fall of the league back in 2021, Cedar Ridge volleyball survived a buzz saw of a schedule that included powerhouse teams from Northwood, Orange and Person and rode on to the 2021 3A state championship.

Orange volleyball won the 3A Eastern regional title in 2023. The Panthers’ men’s cross country team captured the state championship in November and has won three straight regional titles. The men’s swimming team won its first regional championship in February. The lacrosse team took the 3A/2A/1A Eastern Regional championship for the first time last May.

Orange won nine conference championships last academic year and has won the award for the top athletic program in the league each of the last two years.

Now, Orange and Cedar Ridge will be put together against schools they haven’t shared a league with in many years and, in a few cases, ever.

J.F. Webb was in the Big 8 Conference with Orange and Cedar Ridge back in from 2013-to-2017. When Carrboro High opened in 2007, they were in a 2A/1A league with Orange. Durham School of the Arts, which traces its heritage to the original Durham High School, was in a league with Orange in the late 2000s.

DSA hasn’t fielded a football teams since its final days as Durham High School in the mid-1990s.

ROXBORO–There was nothing unexpected in Orange’s seventh game in 13 months against Person on Friday night.

The players were exceedingly familiar with each other, right down to which player would be matched up on another. They knew their seasons would be on the line because this was the second round of the 3A State Playoffs. Everyone understood there would be an overflow crowd waiting to get in to watch two conference rivals battle in the state playoffs for the first time in modern history.

Indeed, there was a line stretched around Person’s auxiliary entrance 15 minutes before tipoff. The wait for tickets was so long, along with metal detectors at the gate, the crowd didn’t fully settle in until midway through the second quarter.

What was unusual about Friday night was how Person won. It was with defense.

Orange shot just 2-of-15 from 3-point range.

What wasn’t unusual was the play of Lance Clarke, who put in a stellar performance as the Rockets won their biggest battle ever against Orange.

Clarke finished with 20 points to send Person onto the Sweet 16 of the 3A State Playoffs with a 56-53 win. The Rockets (27-2) claimed its 14th straight win and will host White Oak on Tuesday night. It was the Rockets third win over the Panthers in February.

Orange ends the season 19-9. Junior guard Kai Wade paced the Panthers with 18 points.

It’s Person’s first trip to the third round of the state playoffs since 2012, when they were a 4A team playing in the old PAC-6 Conference.

Orange suffered its worst shooting performance since the fifth-place game of the South Granville Holiday Invitational in Creedmoor, where they went 2-of-16 against Cedar Valley (Utah) on December 31. Even that performance comes with an asterisk because Cedar Valley had won its previous two games in the tournament. The only reason they played Orange in the fifth-place game was because they had a catch a flight back to Eagle Mountain, Utah and needed to play early in order to fit in a third game on its east coast trip.

Kai Wade drilled a 3-pointer for the game’s opening field goal. Clarke immediately galloped down the floor to the basket, scored on a lay-in and was fouled by Orange senior Michael Clark. The Rockets scored 12 in a row playing stiff defense, including Clarke stripping the ball away from Freddy Sneed for a lay-in to put Person ahead 12-3, leading to an Orange timeout. The Panthers went over four minutes without a point and played catchup the rest of the night.

To make matters tougher for Orange, they lost Clark to three fouls in the first quarter. Clark scored the game-winning 3-point play with :36.7 remaining to beat C.B. Aycock on Tuesday night.

Yet Person’s fortunes from downtown weren’t any better. The Rockets were 1-of-15 from 3-point range. Kyan Lunsford made Person’s only 3-pointer midway through the second quarter to give Person its largest lead at 25-11.

Orange had sprung a big comeback before in Roxboro. In its 67-65 win on January 9, the Panthers shot 12-of-15 from the field in the 3rd quarter to erase a 28-9 Person lead, including 6-of-9 from 3-point range. While the shots weren’t falling on Friday, the Panthers still made a rally and had a chance to tie twice in the final two minutes.

Kai Wade started a run with his patented pull-up jumper from 15-feet early in the fourth quarter. Then Sneed stripped the ball away from Person guard Quante Bowman and slammed it down, his final points as a Panther. Clark made a theft off a pass and with a chance to cut Person’s lead to three points, Sneed was called for a charge, taken by Bowman.

Clark came alive in his final quarter as a Panther. He scored a 3-point play to cut Person’s lead to 44-40 with 6:09 remaining.

Just as he did during the Central Conference Tournament last week, Lunsford came through in crucial moments. He scored an old-school 3-point play, then on a lay-in following a steal by Clarke.

With Person leading 50-44, Wade got a uncontested lay-in off a steal for a lay-up. Then Clark picked off a pass and scored on a lay-in. Clarke took a pass and sank a jumper in the paint to extend the Person lead to 52-48.

Wade drained Orange’s only 3-pointer of the second half to cut it to 52-51. The Rockets missed a lay-up on its next trip and Orange had a chance to take the lead with :44 left, but the Panthers missed from deep. Bowman got the rebound to trigger a transition basket, which ended with Clarke finding Lunsford to put the Rockets up by three. Orange missed another 3-pointer, resulting in a lay-in by Clarke with :19 left.

Clark scored on a short jumper with :10.3 left, reducing Person’s lead to 56-53. On the subsequent inbounds pass, Person’s Tae Winstead dropped the ball out of bounds. With another chance to tie, a shot fell short for Orange and the Rockets ran out the clock.

A remorseful Orange locker room was emotional afterwards following a successful season Despite losing its top scorer in Coleman Cloer, who transferred to Caldwell Academy, and center Mason Robinson, who left for Greensboro Day School, the Panthers won 19 games, including road wins at Chapel Hill and Person.

In the end, seniors Xandrell Pennix, Michael Clark, Freddy Sneed, Ethan Ellis, Jamari McDaniel, Conrad Graham, Barrett Liner and Ian Wilson just wanted one more shot to go down against a Person team that beat Orange three times in February by a combined margin of six points.

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The Orange men’s basketball team looked the end of its season right in the eye on Tuesday night and didn’t blink. Trailing 63-61 with 35 seconds remaining, Michael Clark hit a 3-point play with :31.7 remaining to lift the Panthers past C.B. Aycock 69-66 in the opening round of the 3A State Playoffs. It was senior guard Xandrell Pennix who started the rally when he deflected an inbounds pass thrown by Aycock’s Jarvis Williams, who caught the ball while standing out of bounds. Clark got an offensive rebound and scored while getting fouled, leading to the game-winning free throw. Sophomore Kamaal Smith had several big plays in the final 30 seconds, including two free throws to put Orange ahead 67-63. The Golden Falcons had a chance to tie with :2.5 remaining, but Smith stole the inbounds pass and ran out the clock. Pennix led Orange with 23 points, his third straight game with over 20 points. Senior Freddy Sneed, in possibly the final home game of his career, had five steals and four assists. Orange has won state playoff games in back-to-back years for the first time since 2016-2017. Up next will be a familiar face: the Person Rockets. It will be the fourth matchup between the Panthers and the Rockets this year. Tipoff in the 2nd round of the state playoffs will be at 7PM on Friday night in Roxboro.

Orange men’s basketball’s Xandrell Pennix, Freddy Sneed & Kamaal Smith discuss win over C.B. Aycock

The Orange men’s basketball team looked the end of its season right in the eye on Tuesday night and didn’t blink. Trailing 63-61 with 35 seconds remaining, Michael Clark hit a 3-point play with :31.7 remaining to lift the Panthers past C.B. Aycock 69-66 in the opening round of the 3A State Playoffs.

Some teams would shrink from the adversity of losing its experienced point guard with its season on the brink in the state playoffs.

On Tuesday night, Orange fed off of it. And they advanced.

Michael Clark, a senior co-Captain, scored off an offensive rebound while drawing a blocking foul with :32.7 remaining against C.B. Aycock. Clark’s subsequent free throw would put the Panthers ahead for good as Orange rallied to defeat the Golden Falcons 69-66 in Hillsborough on Tuesday night.

Orange (19-8) advances to face Person in the second round on Friday night. It will be the fourth matchup between the Rockets and the Panthers this season.

The final minute of the game had parallels to crushing Orange losses over the past two weeks that cost them the Central Conference regular season and tournament championships. Point guard Kai Wade fouled out with 1:24 remaining in regulation, just as he did when the Panthers lost to Eastern Alamance in the final regular season game, which the Eagles pulled out to win a share of the regular season title.

The Falcons took a 63-61 lead after Zimere Mcclarin scored off an offensive rebound with 1;24 remaining. Moments later, Wade was called for using his off arm to ward off Jaiden Williams, an offensive foul. Instead of Orange’s offence crumbling, their defense created opportunities.

Orange senior Xandrell Pennix slapped the subsequent midcoast inbounds pass back at Aycock guard Jarvis Williams, who caught the ball off the deflection while still standing out of bounds, leading to a Falcon turnover.

Pennix attempted a 3-pointer from the corner but missed. Clark captured the rebound, took a single dribble and forced up a shot from the middle of the paint against Aycock center Janeson Steele. The shot was good and, after a bit of a delay, Steele was called for a blocking foul.

After Clark’s free throw put Orange ahead 64-63, Panther guard Kamaal Smith nearly stole the inbounds pass. After a scramble on the floor, it was picked up by the Falcons’ Dominick Jones, who sprinted down the floor, floated between Clark and center Jalen Crayton but missed a chipee at the rim. Steele tapped the offensive rebound but came up short. Smith got the board, was fouled and sank two free throws with :22.1 remaining, putting the Panthers ahead 66-63.

Aycock’s Jarvis Williams beat the Orange full-court pressure down the floor on a breakaway, but missed a layup, leading to another Smith rebound and free throw. Aycock had a chance to tie with :2.7 remaining, but Smith stole the inbounds pass from three-quarters court and dribbled out the clock.

Aycock, who finished 2nd behind East Wake in the Quad County Conference, used its length and size to throw Orange’s offense into a tizzy early. The Panthers didn’t score in the opening 6:13. Pennix, who led the Panthers with 23 points, ended the drought with a drive to the basket with 1:47 remaining. Yet the Falcons couldn’t take advantage of it, shooting only 2-of-10 in the opening stanza. Remarkably, the Panthers scored 15 points in the final two minutes of the first quarter, keyed by 3-pointers from Wade and Pennix to take a 15-6 lead.

Aycock shot 7-of-9 in the second quarter, including three 3-pointers, outscoring Orange 22-8 to take a 28-23 halftime lead.

After Steele made two free throws to put the Falcons ahead 29-24 in the third quarter, Clark went on a personal 5-0 run to tie the game, capped with a 3-pointer assisted by Hector Garrido. Jaiden Williams, who led Aycock with 25 points, tied the game with two free throws. Orange scored on its next seven possessions, starting when Garrido took a pass from Pennix and earned an old school 3-point play while getting fouled by Jarvis Williams. Pennix and Wade made 3-pointers to extend the Panther lead to 42-37.

Crayton scored on a stickback with 2:53 remaining in regulation to put the Panthers ahead 61-55, but the Falcons went on a 10-0 run to take the lead down he stretch. Jaiden Williams was responsible for six consecutive points, including a lay-in assisted by Jarvis Williams to tie it up at 61-61 with 1:46 remaining.

It’s the first time that Orange has won state playoff games in back-to-back years since 2016-2017. Last year, the Panthers defeated Currituck County in the opening round.