Orange High School

CREEDMOOR–There were moments of desperation that turned into outright panic, a 7-point lead nearly blown in the final minute and two occasions were Orange somehow found itself on defense with the game on the line.

Yet it was still gloriously better than Orange’s last journey to South Granville in 2019.

And, unlike that horrendous previous trip, Orange came away victorious, even if the path to victory was filled with every unexpected bump, bounce, flip and stumble one could imagine along the way.

The Panthers defeated Rolesville 73-70 in the opening game of the Navy Bracket of the South Granville Holiday Invitational at South Granville High School on Monday afternoon. Orange advances to the semifinals to face Cary on Wednesday at 4. The Imps defeated J.F. Webb 66-53 on Monday night.

With two low-post players out of the lineup, Orange coach Darryl Britt called up junior Amare Morgan from the junior varsity squad over Christmas week. Morgan started his first varsity game and had 15 points, including three 3-pointers. Senior Jerec Thompson, who missed three games last week while in quarantine, led all scorers with 33 points, including some crucial free throws late.

It was the third time in five games that Thompson had scored 30 points or more for Orange (3-7).

Orange won for the first time in the South Granville Holiday Invitational. In 2019, the Panthers came into the tournament 7-1 with consecutive wins over East Chapel Hill and defending 3A State Champion Walter Williams. Yet Orange limped away from Creedmoor with losses to Sanderson, Franklinton and Green Hope.

It was the first time in Coach Derryl Britt’s four-year stint that the Panthers won the opening game of any tournament. In 2018, the Panthers finished fifth in the Eastern Guilford Holiday Invitational, but dropped the opener to Northeast Guilford in Gibsonville.

Orange led 69-62 with 1:36 remaining after Thompson rebounded his own miss and stuck it back in from point blank range. Shortly afterwards, Rolesville guard Jayden Michael was fouled by Thompson, which was followed by a technical foul on an Orange guard. Michael hit only one of the subsequent four foul shots.

On the ensuing Rams possession, Michael found himself again at the foul line after a foul against Orange’s Kaleb Barnhardt. Michael, which had two free throws rim out on his previous trip, had another limp out before sinking another to cut Orange’s lead to 69-64.

After a Thompson miss, Isaac Tatum hit a running one-hander, then poked the ball away from Orange’s J.J. Thompson, slid 15-feet across the slick Columbia blue floor on a humid December afternoon, somehow avoided a travel and called timeout. With a chance to tie with 48 seconds remaining, Rolesville’s Lucas Seubert missed a 3-pointer, which was rebounded by Jerec Thompson. After Barnhardt missed a lay-in, Jerec Thompson was fouled and sank two free throws.

With Orange leading 71-66, Michael hit a three-pointer, then poked the ball away from Thompson for a held-ball, which gave it right back to the Rams. With a chance to tie, Thompson poked the ball out of Michael’s hand, dove on the ball and called timeout.

Orange freshman Freddie Sneed hit a free throw with 2.9 seconds remaining, and a desperation heave from midcoast by Tatum missed the goal.

Michael led the Rams (3-7) with 15 points, Seubert added 14.

In the first quarter, Rolesville led 15-9 after two free throws with 49 seconds remaining by Chadwright Wright. Then Orange reeled off 18 consecutive points, started with two free throws from Morgan, followed by a Thompson 3-pointer off an assist from Darius Corbett that beat the quarter buzzer to cut the Rams’ lead to 15-14.

Corbett went coast-to-coast on a lay-in to open the second quarter to put Orange ahead 16-15, a lead they would remarkably not lose for the rest of the game. Thompson added another 3-pointer off a shot fake, then buried another, followed by a 3-pointer from Ryan Moss to increase the Orange advantage to 25-15. Joshua Jackson scored off a lay-in on transition.

The Rams quickly narrowed its deficit to single digits behind a 3-pointer from Lucas Seubert and two field goals from Chadwick Wright, reducing Orange’s lead to 34-31 at the break.

ORANGE 73, ROLESVILLE 70

ROLESVILLE: Jayden Michael 15, Lucas Seubert 14, Michael Downing 4, Jordan Saddler 6, Ibukun Adewumi 6, Isaac Tatum 11, Chadwick Wright 9, Tyler King 3, Logan Huff 2.

ORANGE: Jerec Thompson 33, J.J. Thompson 4, Darius Corbett 7, Isaiah Seymour 2, Amare Morgan 15, Ryan Moss 7, Joshua Jackson 4, Freddie Sneed 1.

GIBSONVILLE–Playing the first game after Christmas in a holiday invitational can be a challenge.

Even the most seasoned squads can sometimes experience a holiday hangover after all the Christmas shopping, family get-togethers, days off and countless meals have faded over time and it comes time to play some basketball.

For Orange, that wasn’t the case in the opening round of the Eastern Guilford Basketball Showcase in Gibsonville on Monday. The Lady Panthers faced Reidsville in the first of six games on the Monday slate. While things grew tight in the second half, there was no holiday hangover to be found for Orange.

Instead, they greeted the early wakeup call with open arms. The players got up early for a shoot around in the auxiliary gymnasium at Eastern Guilford High School. This came a week after a pre-Christmas workout at the Cedar Grove Ruritan Club in order to keep their legs fresh.

“To be honest with you, I kinda liked it,” Orange women’s coach B.J. Condron said of playing the 11AM game. “We worked out for about an hour to get the rust off. The facilities here are so nice here, it was good to get here early. When you play the first game, there’s definitely a concern. We were kind of the first team to wake up.”

Senior guard Aaliyah Harris, who committed to Randolph-Macon College last week, scored 22 points as Orange (7-3) defeated Reidsville 71-45.

Orange led 42-26 with 4:50 remaining in the third quarter, but the Rams’ Kieva Perkins sparked a 14-2 run with a banked-in 3-pointer. Reidville’s Gracious Wise completed a 3-point play to cut Orange’s lead to 44-40 with 57 seconds remaining in the third quarter. The Rams had a chance to cut Orange’s lead down to a single-basket, but were called for a 3-second violation. Subsequently, Jada Reed found Orange’s Samantha George on a diagonal pass, which led to a foul. George sank both free throws, followed by a steal and lay-in by Harris. From that point forward, the Lady Panthers finished the game on a 25-5 run.

Kieva Perkins led the Rams (2-2) with 21 points. Wise added 12 points, but the Rams scored only five points in the fourth quarter.

Perkins sank a running one-hander to cut Orange’s lead to 50-42, but the Rams didn’t score a field goal in the final 5:58. Orange freshman Evelyn George, who finished with ten points, sank a key 15-foot jumper on the next possession that jump started a run and put the game away. It was the fourth time this year that George has finished in double figures.

“Evelyn is putting herself in a position to get more time,” Condron said. “She’s one of our hardest workers and she’s shown that in practice time-and-time again and it’s really starting to pay off.”

The game also marked the return of All-Conference center Erin Jordan-Cornell, who last played against East Chapel Hill on November 30. Jordan-Cornell suffered a leg injury against the Wildcats, which caused her to miss seven games.

Against Reidsville, Jordan-Cornell started but found herself in foul trouble all day. She was limited to seven points and four rebounds.

“I think she did a good job,” Condron said. “Just getting her back in the grove of things, it was good to get her back out there.”

After the two teams finished the first quarter tied 16-16, the Lady Panthers held Reidsville to two field goals in the second quarter. Harris scored eight of her 22 points in the second frame, including two breakaway layups that pushed Orange’s lead briefly into double-digits.

This year, the Eastern Guilford Basketball Showcase isn’t a tournament, but simply three games between nonconfernece opponents across three days. The Lady Panthers, who finished 2nd in the Granville Central Holiday Tournament in 2019, will face Eastern Guilford on Tuesday night at 7:30. Orange will wrap up the event against Northeast Guilford on Wednesday morning at 11AM.

ORANGE 71, REIDSVILLE 45

ORANGE–Samantha George 13, Aaliyah Harris 22, Jada Reed 4, Jarmil Wingate 12, Erin Jordan-Cornell 7, Samantha George 10, Aisha Caron 3.

REIDSVILLE–Heaven Perkins 4, Kieva Perkins 21, Gracious Wise 12, Len Miller 2, Mariah Wilson 4, Morgan Hooper 2.

It was certainly a much more joyful ride home for the Orange men’s basketball team on Monday than the last time they played in the South Granville Holiday Invitational Tournament. A big reason why was because of junior Amare Morgan and senior Jerec Thompson. Orange defeated Rolesville 73-70 in the opening round of the Navy Bracket. Morgan, who earned a call up from the junior varsity team, scored 15 points in his first varsity game. In fact, he started at forward and nailed three 3-pointers. Thompson led all scorers with 33 points,, including 4 3-pointers. With Orange leading 72-70, the Rams had a chance to tie with 15 seconds remaining. But Thompson stripped the ball out of a Rolesville guard’s hands and led to Orange’s Freddy Sneed scoring the game’s final point with 2.7 seconds remaining. It was the third time in five games that Thompson has scored 30-or-more points in a game this season. Orange advances to the Navy Bracket semifinals, where they will face Cary on Wednesday afternoon at 4 at South Granville High School.

Playing in a holiday tournament for the first time since 2019, the Orange women’s basketball team pulled away from Reidsville 71-45 in the opening game of the Eastern Guilford Holiday Invitational in Gibsonville on Monday afternoon. The George sisters played a big role in Orange outscoring the Lady Rams 23-5 in the final quarter. Senior Samantha George scored 13 points, including seven in the second quarter. Samantha’s younger sister, Evelyn George, had a key bucket late in the third quarter after Reidsville reduced the Lady Panthers’ 15-point lead down to four. Evelyn scored ten points, her fourth game in double-figures this season. When they aren’t teammates in Orange uniforms, Samantha and Evelyn often face each other in 1-on-1 games in their backyards. Orange has won five of its last six games and is 7-3 on the season. This year, the Eastern Guilford Holiday Invitational is comprised of seven teams, so it isn’t a tournament. Orange will face Eastern Guilford on Tuesday night at 7 PM, then wrap up the tournament against Northeast Guilford on Wednesday morning at 11.

Kayla Hodges: After four seasons at Elon University as an All-Colonial Athletic Association midfielder in women’s soccer, Kayla Hodges has announced she will attend to Virginia Commonwealth University as a graduate transfer in 2022. In her final season with Elon, Hodges was named first-team All-CAA. Last season, she started all 17 games for Elon and scored three goals. Last spring, Hodges helped the Phoenix win its first-ever Colonial Athletic Association Tournament championship. In ten games, she was named second-team All-CAA. Hodges played 42 games in her career at Elon. She was also a factor in Elon fishing the 2021 season with a team-GPA of 3.693, the highest in team history. She will transfer to a VCU team that won the 2021 Atlantic 10 Conference regular season championship. The Rams finished 13-4 overall, 9-1 in the A-10. The Rams narrowly missed out on going to the NCAA Tournament, losing to St. Joseph’s 1-0 in the Atlantic 10 Championship game.

Payton Wilson: Joe Giglio of WRAL.com reported that Wilson will return for another season with the N.C. State football team. Wilson, who was an All-Atlantic Coast Conference linebacker in 2020, suffered a season-ending shoulder injury against Mississippi State on September 11. Wilson completed only one game this season as the Wolfpack finished 9-3. He was eligible to declare for the National Football League draft since he graduated from Orange High in 2018, longer than the three-year minimum period required by the NFL. He is still a redshirt sophomore with the Wolfpack. N.C. State will face UCLA in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego on Tuesday.

Connor Crabtree: The Richmond men’s basketball team will go into Atlantic 10 Conference play with a ton of momentum. The Spiders defeated N.C. State 83-74 in the Basketball Hall of Fame Shootout at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte on December 17. It was the first win over an ACC team for the Spiders since they defeated Boston College in November 2019. Crabtree came off the bench to play seven minutes. He didn’t score. Last Sunday, the Spiders knocked off Old Dominion 67-61 at the Robins Center in Richmond. Crabtree came off the bench to play six minutes and didn’t score. On Wednesday, the Spiders routed Bucknell 81-50 in its final game before Christmas. Crabtree played eleven minutes and scored five points. He also had four rebounds and two assists. Richmond went 6-0 in December with wins over Wofford, Northern Iowa and Toledo. The Spiders open Atlantic 10 Conference play against St. Joseph’s on Thursday.

Joey McMullin: The Sandhills Community College men’s basketball team ended 2021 with five straight wins in December. On December 15, Sandhills defeated Shooting for Greatness 108-78 in Pinehurst. McMullin came off the bench and scored 13 points in 12 minutes. McMullin shot 4-of-6 from the field and knocked down a three-pointer. He added three rebounds and one assist. On December 18, the Flyers defeated Thomas Nelson Community College 90-71. McMullin had 16 points for Sandhills, which improved to 10-4 overall. McMullin had 16 points along with a team-high eight rebounds. He shot 7-of-10 from the field, including scoring on his only 3-point attempt. The Flyers are ranked #10 in Division III of the National Junior College Athletic Association. They are also 1-0 in Region X of the NJCAA. Sandhills will travel to Davidson-Davie Community College in Thomasville on New Year’s Day.

Desean Motley: Following in his father’s footsteps, Desean Motley has been promoted to Associate head coach for the Division II Lees-McRae men’s basketball team. Motley was a guard for his father, former Orange men’s basketball coach Greg Motley, at Orange. He averaged 14 points, six rebounds and five assists for the Panthers. Motley played two seasons for Lees-McRae before he started his college coaching career during his senior year with the Bobcats. Lees-McRae is currently 5-2 in Conference Carolinas, 7-4 overall.

Dean Dease has spent more Sunday afternoons at Orange High ballpark than any other place on Earth.

It’s where he mowed grass, raked dirt, spread fertilizer, sewed grass, picked up rocks and sunflower seeds for 35 years. He was doing this in the early 1990s, a time when some local high schools still had grassless infields. By his own admission, keeping Orange’s field in proper shape was his obsession.

This past Sunday was different. Since retiring as Orange’s baseball coach at the end of the 2018 season, he has kept his distance from the program that he once couldn’t pull himself away from.

Two years ago, Dease’s replacement, Jason Knapp, started work with the Orange Dugout Club on a sign that would hang alongside the entrance to Orange High Baseball field. As visitors walked up the steps towards the press box, they would see the long list of accomplishments that Dease achieved over three decades in Hillsborough. He started at a time when there was only one high school in Hillsborough and just two public high schools in all of Orange County.

After many delays created by the pandemic, various schedules to get the right people in place, the day for the unveiling finally happened this past Sunday.

The irony that it occurred on a cold, rainy December afternoon wasn’t lost on the many current and former players in attendance, which included current Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Bryse Wilson, former UNC catcher and UNC Pembroke head coach Matt McCay, East Carolina shortstop Joey Berini and current members of the Panthers.

Usually, Dease worked on the field amid the ruthless North Carolina summer heat, something he endured growing up in Bessemer City.

However, Sunday’s ceremony was a surprise for Dease, something that his wife Jan and daughters M’Lynn and Abby have kept secret for months.

Once the surprise was finally revealed, Dease couldn’t hold back his emotions.

“That’s beautiful,” Dease muttered as the sign, outlined in white against a black backdrop, was unveiled.

The sign listed Dease’s 12 conference championships, 21 state playoff appearances, two sectional finals, the 2008 2A State Championship, and his induction into the North Carolina Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame in 2019.

“You don’t even remember winning all that stuff, do ya?” Knapp asked Dease.

“No, but I remember all the losses,” Dease replied.

“This is an honor,” Dease said after he composed himself. “I never even considered something like this. First of all, thank you to the players because none of this happens without players. We’ve had some really great players in my years. When I started in 1988 with those guys, even Bobby Miller was good.”

Miller, a former player for Dease’s first varsity team when he replaced Gary Maske as head coach, went on to become Orange’s junior varsity coach during Dease’s final season in 2018. Miller’s daughter, Avery, is an Orange senior volleyball player.

All coaches, regardless of sport, have ups and downs with parents. Dease navigated the ebbs and flows of parental demands as much as anyone who ever coached in Hillsborough, but he honored the mothers and fathers in his speech.

“You’re their discipline, their role models,” Dease said. “Without good parents, we don’t have good players and that’s the bottom line.”

Wilson, who won Game 4 of the National League Championship Series for the Atlanta Braves just 14 months ago, stood on the stairwell that leads to the press box with his father Chad during the ceremony. Wilson pitched for Orange from 2013-2016, where he recorded a 33-4 record with a 0.90 ERA. He was a member of four Big 8 Conference championships. In his senior year, Wilson had two no-hitters, including a perfect game against Eastern Wayne in the opening round of the 2016 3A State Playoffs.

“This had been in the works pre-COVID,” Knapp said. “We were finally able to pull it off. There were a bunch of bumps in the road. I’m glad we could finally make this happen. Coach Dease is a mentor. As a young coach growing up, I always looked up to him. Before I came to Orange, I was always picking his brain. trying to mimic his program, trying to bring things that he had created where I was at. He’s just a guy that all coaches in the state still look up to.”

Dease also honored Knapp.

“I worried when I retired what would happen to the field and to the program,” Dease said, who was drowned out by parents murmuring he was more worried about the field. “Obviously, there’s been no looking back. Jason has taken it to another level. So thanks for everything you’re doing.”

Dease’s daughters inherited their love of the game from their father. M’Lynn, who recently graduated from Coastal Carolina, served as a student manger for the UNC Wilmington Seahawks baseball program. In his speech, Dease expressed remorse that he couldn’t have seen more of her games for the Orange softball team, whose games are a short walk down the hill from the baseball field.

“I never saw a game because we were up here,” Dease said. “Somebody said she hit a double off the field one time, I don’t know. I sacrificed a lot of time with them.”

When Abby Dease was a swimmer at Orange, Dease could be found poolside holding a stopwatch to time her meets.

Sitting around the house in retirement has been a challenge for Dease–almost as much as winning 503 games over 35 years.

Since retiring as a teacher at Orange in 2017, he’s kept himself busy by waking up early on weekday mornings to mow lawns at Occoneechee Golf Club. It’s where one of his former students, Scott Ray, works as the day-to-day manager and another former player helps keep the course looking immaculate.

After three years away, Dease is ready to return to coaching. During the ceremony, he announced he had recently accepted a position to become the new head coach at Durham Academy.

“I’m sticking my foot back in the door,” Dease said. “I didn’t know what else to do. I don’t have any skills!”