Boys Basketball: The Gravelly Hill Grizzlies continue a solid season with a 52-25 victory over Stanback on Thursday night in Efland. Landon Dalehite led the Grizzlies with 20 points. Kai Wade added seven points. Nathan Sorrells had 6. D.J. Norman and Carson Farmer each had four. Tyler Fields finished with 3. Micah Cates, Deacon McCory and Malachi Poole had two each for Gravelly.

On January 9, Gravelly defeated Southern Roxboro 45-23. Wade led the Grizzlies with 16 points. Sorrells had eight. Dalehite finished with seven. Hayden Kirk finished with four points. Norman had five. Sincere Hanner registered four points. McCrory had two points and Poole scored one.

Gravelly, which has won both of its games to open 2020, will travel to Stanford next Thursday.

Girls Basketball: Northern Roxboro edged Stanford 25-24 on Tuesday. Evelyn George finished with eight points to lead the Chargers. Katie Wolter had six. Arianna Lewis finished with three. Dyreshia Farrish, Olivia Jones and Kennedy Winters each had two points. Caden Robinson scored one. Stanford will travel to Stanback on Wednesday at 4:45.

Wrestling: Before its victory over Stanback last week, the Stanford Chargers opened 2020 by beating Smith Middle School 87-18 to improve to 5-0 on the season. Wyatt Hedrick (85), Vincent Steven (92), Jared Hutchins (108), Luke Nevius (122), Colton Jones (128), Jace Womble (134), Andre Hill (140), Sascha VanPraag (154), Josh Merrill (162) and Vincent Jaubert-Stenzel (172) all claimed pitfall victories for the Chargers.

Joshua Cowan won by decision at 115 pounds. Aiden Cain claimed a major decision at 100 pounds. Luke Stitz (78), Laurencio Grimaldo (147) and Abais Miles (184) claimed forfeit wins.

Hedrick, Stevens, Cain, Hutchins, Cowan, Womble, Hill, VanPragg, Merrill and Jaubert-Stenzel went into the Stanback match last Friday with undefeated records.

Last week, the Gravelly Hill wrestling team fell to Culbreth in a tight match 54-43. The Grizzlies are 2-4 overall, 2-2 in the Orange-Person Athletic Conference.

Two Grizzlies remain undefeated on the season. Carlos Vazquez scored a pin at 106 pounds to improve to 6-0. At 145 pounds, Angus Pritchard scored a pin to also go to 6-0.

Mason Cates claimed a pinfall win to go to 4-1. At 76 pounds, Ada Adkins won via forfeit to improve to 3-1. At 195 pounds, Lucan Cavlin won by forfeit to go to 5-1. Conner Wobble won by forfeit at 220 to go to 1-1. Jonathan Willis won at 250 pounds by forfeit and is now 3-3.

Gravelly coach Nathan Cates is trying to rebuild the program after they didn’t field a wrestling team in 2018.

“We are better than last year,” Cates said. “We’re more competitive this year. Not having a team in 2018 hurt the program. But we are rebuilding. Most of the guys are first year wrestlers going up against 3rd-year wrestlers. But we continue to show improvement in every match.”

Gravelly had lost only two matches by more than one weight class. Cates says there has been several injuries that has plagued the team, but they continue to get stronger. The Grizzlies will host McDougle Middle School on Wednesday in Efland. The match starts at 4:45.

For any results that you would like to have included in Middle School Review, simply email hamln37@hotmail.com. We’re looking for more girls basketball results, boys basketball results and ultimate frisbee, as well.

Call it fate. Call it karma. Call it good luck.

For whatever reason, the Orange men’s basketball team has had its most clutch moments inside Chapel Hill High School in recent years.

It’s where they defeated Southern Durham in 2016 to win the Big 8 Conference Tournament, its first postseason championship in over 25 years. It’s where Machai Holt came to life last year with 16 points in the final eleven minutes to lift the Panthers past Chapel Hill in double overtime.

The latest shining moment inside the house that Ken Miller built came from Kendrell Brooks on Tuesday night.

Brooks hit a one-hand runner with :05 remaining as Orange defeated Chapel Hill 61-59 to end a seven-game losing streak. It was the Panthers’ first win since December 18 when they routed Walter Williams.

Joey McMullin led Orange with 22 points, while Jerec Thompson added 17. Brooks finished with 13.

Colin Himmelberg and Jake Chisholm each scored 12 for Chapel Hill (7-8, 2-3). Curiously, Himmelberg barely played in the final minutes.

With the scored tied 51-51 going into the fourth quarter, Orange went without a field goal for five minutes. Chapel Hill, who went with an all-reserve lineup for most of the fourth quarter, didn’t seize the moment in that span, scoring only five points to take a 56-51 lead. Backup guard Keshawn Brown scored the Tigers’ only two field goals in the final quarter, including a five-footer in transition with 13 seconds left that tied the game in a thrilling final sequence.

Chapel Hill led 56-55 with 2:00 remaining when Kyle Stanley took a lightning bolt of a pass from Tucker Miller to score on a lay-in. Issac Sinclair split two free throws on Chapel Hill’s next possession to even the game at 57.

Each team missed the front ends of one-and-ones on subsequent possessions. Brooks took a McMullin screen and danced down the lane to give Orange a 59-57 lead before Brown tied it.

“Kendrell stepped up and played a very good game tonight,” said Orange Coach Derryl Britt. “Down the stretch, we played team basketball when we trusted each other. That’s what we needed. The guys trusted the game plan. It paid off for us in the end. We finished the game playing team basketball.”

Unlike last year’s double overtime game where Chapel Hill led for the vast majority, this game was nip-and-tuck. Chapel Hill’s largest lead was six points. Orange didn’t lead by more than four. Of the eleven Tigers that played, nine scored.

After three disappointing home losses last week, all against Big 8 Conference opponents, the Panthers found their shooting stroke once again. Of Orange’s 12 field goals in the first half, seven were 3-pointers. McMullin had 13 points in the first half, and added seven more in the third quarter.

“The best thing I saw all night was the way we communicated with each other,” Britt said. “Offensively and defensively, down the stretch, the way we congratulated each other. It didn’t matter who hit the shot or who got the defensive stop. As long as we got it as a unit, everybody was happy and everybody celebrated.”

Next up for Orange will be, almost certainly, the most surreal matchup in school history regardless of sport. The Panthers will travel to Southern Durham, coached by Greg Motley, the all-time winningest coach in Orange history. For years, Motley stood on the sidelines for Orange when Southern Durham, coached by Kendrick Hall, was the Panthers’ biggest rival.

Motley still teaches at Orange and includes several Panther players among his students. In November, Motley replaced David Noel, who left Southern Durham after one season as head coach to become an assistant with the Capital City Go-Go of the NBA Gatorade League.

ORANGE 61, CHAPEL HILL 59

CHAPEL HILL: Colin Himmelberg 12, Seth Morton 4, Issac Sinclar 1, Jack Grubbs 6, Jake Chisholm 12, Matt Polsky 2, Jermaine Burnette 8, Keshawn Brown 11, Grant Ferris 3.

ORANGE: Jerec Thompson 17, Jason Franklin 3, Kyle Stanley 6, Joey McMullin 22, Kendrell Brooks 13.

For the second year in a row, Orange defeated Chapel Hill at Tiger Gymnasium on Tuesday night, and just like last year it was a thriller. Junior forward Kendrell Brooks hit a running one-handier with five seconds remaining for the game-winning shot as Orange won 61-59. Brooks scored 13 points, hit highest output since scoring 16 against Green Hope on December 28. Brooks created offense off the dribble, freeing up Jerec Thompson for a critical 3-pointer with 3:00 remaining. Brooks provided a spark as Orange won for the first time in 2020. They hope to continue the momentum on Friday night when they face Southern Durham, coached by Greg Motley, the winningest Orange coach in 20 years who started with the Spartans in November. You can hear that game on Hillsboroughsports.com starting at 7:30 live from Spartan Gymnasium.

This week’s Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week is wrestler James Rosati-Brown. On Saturday, Rosati-Brown won the 152-pound championship at the Buccaneer Cup in Yanceyville. Rosati-Brown won five matches in the round robin tournament to win his first individual title of his high school career. Competing in five matches, Rosati-Brown won all five via pinfall to improve to 24-9 on the season. He has 15 pins. Cedar Ridge won the team championship, the first team from Hillsborough to win a tournament this season. On January 8, Cedar Ridge started the year by beating Northern Durham 63-10 for its first Big 8 Conference victory of the year. Against the Knights, Rosati-Brown defeated Shamari Zachari 7-6. Rosati-Brown finished 5th in the Jim King/Orange Invitational on December 7th at Orange High. Cedar Ridge will host its senior night next Thursday in a tri-meet against East Chapel Hill and Vance County.

Hello loyal readers, it’s been a while since the last edition of Campbell’s Ramble and it’s good to be back. In this edition we talk a little basketball, and I’m going to make a prediction for the College Football Playoff National Championship Game. Since we are in the meat of basketball season however, my formatting is going to be a little bit different than the more football focused editions. Due to the nature of basketball, I will only be providing my thoughts on 8 teams a week, not like football where I did every ACC team who played a game. Those teams will be the 3 triangle based ACC schools (Carolina, Duke, State) along with Syracuse (my school) and then 4 other ACC squads that I find interesting for this edition. For predictions, I will be picking at least one game for every ACC team, with repeats allowed. Enough talk about the rules though, let’s talk hoops!

Duke

Right now, this is the only local team I feel I can actually trust to win a game. Early on in the season when Duke’s 150 game non conference home win streak was snapped at the hands of Stephen F. Austin, it seemed like this would be a bit of a rebuilding year for the Blue Devils. That being said, the Dukies flipped the script and haven’t lost a game since. Despite a tough test in Atlanta at Georgia Tech, Duke is clearly the best team in the conference right now. Tre Jones is the best point guard in the conference and Vernon Carey has the ability to take over in the post and because of those two, Coach K’s team is one of the few real championship contenders this season.

North Carolina

This team is truly terrible right now. With Cole Anthony, Anthony Harris, and Sterling Manley all out injured. The Heels only have 4 of their top 7 rotation players healthy. Not to mention Christian Keeling being nowhere close to being as good as advertised. A team with no real starting point guard available and only 3 ACC starting caliber players (Bacot, Brooks, Robinson) available is destined for failure. With a very strong 2020 recruiting class, the Heels probably have another championship window left in the Roy Williams era, but it’s going to be a rough rest of the season.

NC State

Like every NC State in the 21st century, the Pack are wildly inconsistent once again. You see a big comeback win over Notre Dame, only to see Kevin Keatts’s squad put up a pathetic performance in a road loss to Virginia Tech. I don’t know what to make of the Wolfpack this season. If you had to ask me whether NC State will make the tournament this year I would lean slightly towards yes due to how much I like Markell Johnson, but I really just can’t decide whether this team is actually good or not.

Syracuse

Syracuse lives and dies by the 3 pointer. Their defense is not very good, largely due to the fact that Bourama Sidibe doesn’t box out to save his life and teams constantly snag offensive rebounds on the Orange end of the court. Because of this, Cuse is forced to shoot from 3 point land to make up for the defensive meltdowns. Thankfully, when you play a team that shoots as poorly as Virginia, it doesn’t take that much to beat them. A solid performance from Joe Girard III and Elijah Hughes gets Syracuse a nice little win in overtime against the defending champs.

Syracuse still has a chance to make a run for an NCAA tournament bid, but Girard and Hughes will have to drag them kicking and screaming to the field of 68.

Virginia

This UVA team might be better defensively than last year’s championship team. Unfortunately, they can’t shoot to save their lives. Not a single Cavalier is hitting more than 40 percent of their shots beyond the arc, and as a team are shooting only 27 percent from three. It’s so unfortunate to have to watch a team just fall off a cliff like the Hoos have, and I have my doubts that Virginia makes the tournament this year.

Clemson

Yes, this Clemson team broke the 59 game losing streak in Chapel Hill. No, that does not mean they are good. This might be the worst team in Brad Brownell’s tenure at Clemson. Thankfully for Brad, the win in Chapel Hill might just be enough to keep him around another season at the helm of the Tigers.

Florida State

If there is ever a year for Lenny Ham to make his first Final Four appearance, this is the one. A weak ACC leaves Florida State with plenty of opportunities to rack up wins and get themselves a favorable draw in the NCAA field. With a very balanced scoring attack, the Noles don’t have to rely on one man to win games like so many other teams this year are forced to. Vassell, Forrest, and Walker can all contribute day in and day out and it’s looking like this could be the best team Florida State has had in a long time.

Boston College

Like Clemson, don’t let the early 3-2 conference record fool you into thinking the Eagles are good. They are not. Jim Christian is a good coach who can make Boston College a fairly competitive team despite minimal talent levels. That being said, the conference wins are against Wake Forest, Notre Dame, and then a Virginia team who can’t shoot. It’s not like the Eagles have been giant killers here, and they’re going to be near the bottom of the conference at the end of the season.

Basketball Predictions

Duke vs. Clemson. Duke 89-60

Virginia Tech vs. Wake Forest. Virginia Tech 82-71

Virginia vs. Florida State. Florida State 61-49

Notre Dame vs. Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech 75-73

Miami vs. NC State. NC State 83-76

Boston College vs. Syracuse. Syracuse 70-57

North Carolina vs. Pitt. Pitt 68-63

Louisville at Duke. Louisville 77-76

Last edition record: 1-5

Season record: 19-12

CFP Championship Prediction

Clemson vs. LSU. Clemson 41-38

Last edition record: 7-1

Season record: 42-23

Basketball Power Rankings

1. Duke

2. Florida State

3. Louisville

4. Virginia

5. Virginia Tech

6. NC State

7. Syracuse

8. Miami

9. Boston College

10. Georgia Tech

11. Clemson

12. Pittsburgh

13. Notre Dame

14. North Carolina

15. Wake Forest

This week’s Orange Panther of the Week is junior swimmer Ashley Behringer. On Tuesday, Behringer won the 100 yard backstroke in a meet against Chapel Hill and Northern Durham at the Orange County Sportsplex. Behringer finished with a time of 1:05.35, which earns her consideration for the Mideast Regionals. Behringer joined Caroline Lazarus, Melissa Campbell and Abby Dease on the 400 yard freestyle relay team, which qualified for the regionals with a time of 4:15.65. The group finished. 2nd in a six-team race behind Chapel Hill. Behringer also played tennis this fall for Coach Justin Webb. The Lady Panthers finished 11-8, its best mark since 2013, at least. The Orange women’s swimming team has victories over Eastern Alamance, Walter Williams, Cedar Ridge and Northern Durham this season. The Lady Panthers will compete in the Big 8 Conference Championships at Duke University on Wednesday, January 22.