The Orange men’s lacrosse team defeated Cedar Ridge 10-6 at Auman Stadium on Wednesday night. Senior Ryan Merrill finished with six goals, including three in the opening period. Caleb Davis added two goals and an assist as the Panthers defeated the Red Wolves for the fourth straight time. it was Orange’s first game in two weeks. The Panthers were supposed to face Roxboro Community School last week twice, but both games were rained out. In 2020, Orange started 6-0 with possibly its most talented team in school history before the pandemic ended the season after a convincing victory against Roxboro Community. Now, with college prospects Wyatt Jones and Caleb Davis now playing at Mercer and Queen’s University, respectively, the Panthers are building again behind younger players like Connor Kruse and Jace Womble. Orange will travel to Northern Durham on Thursday night, then travel to Vance Charter on Saturday.

Like most other football teams across North Carolina, Cedar Ridge is starting football season in the spring. Now, they will start a night earlier than anticipated. The Red Wolves season-opener against Northwood has been moved to Thursday night because of rain anticipated on Friday. For new Cedar Ridge Coach Corey Lea, it will give his new staff a chance to learn about his new team. The Red Wolves were supposed to face Granville Central in a scrimmage last week, but it was rained out. The Red Wolves will have to find a replacement for Isaiah McCambrey, who transferred to Williams last summer. Aiden Seagrvoes is expected to be the starting quarterback for Friday’s opener against the Chargers. Jake Mergenthal, the younger brother of former Cedar Ridge All-Conference offensive lineman Braxton Mergenthal, will be a prominent player on defense for the Red Wolves. You can hear live coverage of the Red Wolves vs. the Chargers on Friday night at 6:15 on Hillsboroughsports.com.

Grace Andrews: For the first time in her college career, the former Orange High second baseman hit a home run as #20 Catawba Valley Community College hosted a doubleheader against #19 Pitt Community College on Saturday. Andrews launched a solo blast in the bottom of the second inning. In the sixth, Andrews hit a double and went on to score off a home run by Cali Hinnant. Pitt County won the game 13-9, then completed the sweep with a 9-1 decision in the nightcap. Through eight games, Andrews leads Catawba Valley with a .520 batting average, 13 hits and four doubles. She’s tied for the team lead with eight runs scored. Catawba Valley is 5-3 and will travel to face Camp Community College in Franklin, VA on Friday. The following day, the Red Hawks travel to Virginia Beach for a doubleheader against Bryant & Stratton College.

Montana Davidson: The #22 Mississippi State softball team completed the Alex Wilcox Memorial (dubbed “The Snowman”) with wins over Missouri State and Mississippi Valley State on Monday. In a 5-0 win over the Bears, Montana Davidson went 2-for-3 with an RBI. Davidson, who started at third base, singled in the game’s final run in the fifth inning. In the nightcap, MSU defeated Mississippi Valley State 10-1 in five innings. Davidson went 2-for-2 with an RBI and two runs scored. After reaching on a single, Montana scored in the 2nd inning off an error. In the 3rd, Montana singled to left field to plate Anna Kate Segars. She would go on to score off a hit by Brylie St. Clair. Davidson is on a four-game hitting streak. Through the four games of the Snowman, Davidson went 7-for-11 with four RBIs. Against Southern Illinois, Davidson homered in the sixth inning to even the game at 4-4. The Salukis went on to win 6-5 in eight innings.

Mia Davidson: Mia Davidson hit her first home run of the season against MVSU. It was a two-run blast to dead center. Mia went 2-for-3 with three RBIs and a run scored. In the third inning, Davidson singled to left field to score Jackie McKenna. Against Missouri State, Davidson scored the game’s opening run after she was hit by a pitch. Mississippi State is 4-1.

Adam Chnupa: The Elon football team opened its spring football season with a 26-23 victory over Davidson at Rhodes Stadium on Saturday. Chnupa, a redshirt sophomore, played on special teams for the Phoenix. Elon will travel to Gardner-Webb on Saturday.

Landon Riley: The Liberty baseball team started its season with a series against Campbell at Jim Perry Stadium in Buies Creek over the weekend. Riley, a junior, pitched two shutout innings for the Flames on Sunday. Riley surrendered two hits and struck out three batters. The Camels edged the Flames 3-2 to take the rubber game in the series. Liberty will play its home opener against North Carolina A&T on Wednesday in Lynchburg, VA.

Brandon Andrews: The former Cedar Ridge centerfielder and pitcher entered the NCAA Transfer Portal after two seasons at Nicholls State. After being redshirted by the Colonels in 2020, Andrews is now at Jacksonville State. He didn’t play in the Gamecocks’ opening series over the weekend, which included a win over Alabama State and loses to Tennessee Tech and Southern Illinois.

Cooper Porter: Porter, who played six different positions with the Orange baseball team over three seasons, originally committed to play at N.C. State. He is now at Pensacola State, a junior college, after a scholarship crunch with the Wolfpack forced by the pandemic. Porter has appeared in three games for the Pirates. In an 8-2 win over Enterprise State Community College on February 7, Porter had his first college start at second base and finish with an RBI groundout. Pensacola State is 7-8 and will host Bishop State Community College on Friday.

Dylan Boyer: In his first college game, the former Orange High attacker scored a goal for Division II Queen College. Boyer scored the Royals’ final goal in a 9-4 loss to #15 Mount Olive at Ray McDonald Stadium on Saturday. Previously, Boyer was honored by the team with the Practice Player of the Week for week five of the season. Queens, which is picked to finish fourth in the South Atlantic Conference, will travel to Newberry College on Saturday.

So far, the closest thing Katie Belle Sikes has had to an in-person class at Orange High was freshman orientation last summer. But she’s already made her mark in swimming. Last weekend, Sikes, a freshman, finished 2nd in the 50 Yard Freestyle during the 3A State Swimming and Diving Championships at Pullen Aquatic Center in Raleigh. On February 6, Sikes won the 3A Central Regional Championship in the 50 Yard Freestyle at the Greensboro Aquatic Center with a time of 23.31 seconds. In the state championships, Sikes finished at 23.26 seconds, behind only Olivia Rhodes, a senior from Charlotte Catholic. In the Central Regional Championships, Sikes joined Riley White, Brooke Walker and Melissa Campbell to finish 5th in the 200 Yard Medley Relay. White also qualified for the state championships on Orange’s 400 yard Freestyle Relay team, joining senior Abby Dease, senior Calla Walker and Riley White. If you’ve been to the Orange County Sportsplex, chances are you’ve seen Sikes working out in the pool. She’s a constant in the water, whether its swimming in meets with Orange or with the Hillsborough Aquatic Club. We’ll have a complete profile of Sikes coming up this weekend on the website.

Jarmil Wingate had a season-high 12 points to help the Orange women’s basketball team defeat Southern Durham 44-41 at Spartan Gymnasium on Tuesday afternoon. Wingate also assisted on what turned out to be the game-winning three-point play from Erin Jordan-Cornell with 1:27 remaining. Aaliyah Harris scored all eight of her points in the second half as the Lady Panthers came back from 12 down. Wingate and Harris have been teammates for the past five years on travel teams throughout the area. It’s for that reason that Harris and Wingate have been dubbed the Wonder Twins on Hillsboroughsports.com broadcasts, in honor of the 1980s SuperFriends cartoon superheroes that are relatively obscure. Despite being 5-2, Wingate is second on the team with 5.2 rebounds per contest. Orange clinched a winning season with the victory over the Spartans and remains alive for a state playoff birth. Orange is slated to wrap up the regular season against Northern Durham on Friday afternoon at Panther Gymnasium.

For nearly a year now, the COVID-19 pandemic has made life grossly unfairly for hundreds of high school students across Hillsborough.

Just when the haze of the virus’ thick cloud seemed to be clearing, there was an extra dose of cruelty for Hillsborough basketball on Monday.

Cedar Ridge had to cancel its remaining games to go into quarantine (more on that later this week). So did the Northern Durham men’s team, which was supposed to face Orange on Friday in Hillsborough

Orange seniors Jason Franklin and Kyle Stanley woke up Sunday thinking their final game inside Panther Gymnasium would be Friday night. Suddenly, with only a few hours notice, their final home game would be on Monday night against Chapel Hill.

So in the final Big 8 Conference matchup between the Tigers and the Panthers for at least the next four years (and probably longer), a Chapel Hill player had one of the greatest individual performances in the rivalry’s long history.

Junior guard Jake Chislom scored 41 points as the Tigers defeated Orange 75-62 in Hillsborough. Chislom scored 19 points in the first quarter, then added 17 in the fourth quarter.

Chapel Hill (7-4, 3-3 in the Big 8 Conference) won in its second trip to Hillsborough this season. Friday’s game, which was scheduled at Tiger Gymnasium, was postponed because of the threat of freezing rain.

In his final game in Hillsborough, Franklin scored 16 points. Kyle Stanley, Franklin’s teammate, finished with four. Orange (2-8, 1-6 in the Big 8), who never led in the game, was led by junior Jerec Thompson with 20 points.

The pace of the game was diametrically opposed to Orange’s chess match pace against East Chapel Hill on Thursday, when the two teams combined for 67 points in 36 minutes. At halftime on Monday, Chapel Hill led Orange 42-32, mainly behind Chislom.

Orange junior Joshua Jackson, in just his fourth varsity game, came off the bench to score eight points in the opening quarter as the Panthers kept it close early. Jerec Thompson added three 3-pointers in the opening quarter, but Chapel Hill center Carter Grubbs knocked down a driving baseline shot to put the Tigers ahed 26-20 at the end of the first quarter.

Chislom’s 3-pointer with 5:33 remaining in the third quarter gave the Tigers its largest lead at 49-34. After Franklin muscled in a drive to the basket, Chislom canned another 3-pointer, then Jermaine Burnette’s attempt at a dunk rimmed in to put the Tigers ahead 52-36.

Thompson canned a 3-pointer to end the third quarter, and another to start the fourth to whittle the deficit down to 68-60. But Matt Polsky hit a running one-hander, only for Thompson to drain another trey to reduce Chapel Hill’s lead to 60-53.

On the next possession, Jackson rebounded a Polskey miss and tried to score in transition but collided with Burnette. There was no call. On the other end, Franklin was called for a foul on a block attempt of a shot by Chislom.

After 12 years as Big 8 Conference rivals, Chapel Hill finished with a 15-13 record against Orange. During the Connor Crabtree years, Orange went 9-1 against the Tigers.

In another cruel irony, for the third year in a row, Orange will conclude its season at Southern Durham on Tuesday night. The Spartans are coached by Greg Motley, the winningest Orange coach in school history. Motley was Franklin’s first high school coach in 2017.

WOMEN: CHAPEL HILL 46, ORANGE 36

With a spot in the state playoffs on the line, the Chapel Hill women led wire-to-wire to defeat Orange 46-35 at Panther Gymnasium. The Tigers will be the #2 seed from the Big 8 Conference for the 3A State Playoffs.

For just the second time this season, Orange’s leading scorers, Aaliyah Harris and Erin Jordan-Cornell, were both held below double-figures. Jordan-Cornell scored eight points in the second quarter, but didn’t score in the second half. Harris was held to five points.

Chapel Hill’s three-guard lineup of Riley Corcoran, Laney Beale and Morgan Korfas gave the Lady Panthers headaches on both ends of the floor. Beale led the Tigers with 15 points, while Korfas had eleven. Corcoran finished with eight as Chapel Hill defeated Orange for the fourth straight time.

Chapel Hill raced out to a 18-8 lead. Orange’s Jada Reed hit an early 3-pointer, but Chapel Hill reeled off eight straight points behind a trey from Beale.

Orange can still qualify for one of the wildcard state playoffs spots in the Eastern Region. Orange travels to Southern Durham on Tuesday and will host Northern Durham on Friday night in its regular season finale.

MENS: CHAPEL HILL 75, ORANGE 62

CHAPEL HILL: Matt Polsky 8, Jake Chislom 41, Grant Ferris 2, Jermaine Burnette 8, Carter Grubs 8, Tyler Stillson 3, Ryan McKinnon 3, Franklin Johnson 2.

ORANGE: Jerec Thompson 20, Jason Franklin 16, J.J. Thompson 2, Kyle Stanley 4, Joshua Jackson 10, Hunter Birch 2, Ryan Moss 2, Darius Corbett 6.