Orange guard Machai Holt scored a career-high 33 points on Saturday as the Panthers scored a season-high 88 points in a victory over Western Guilford in the 5th place game of the Eastern Guilford Christmas Holiday Basketball Tournament in Guilford. Mekai Collins added 24 points. Orange started the tournament with a disappointing loss to Northeast Guilford on December 27, but rebounded with a 70-61 win over Southeast Guilford the following day. Orange will return to Big 8 Conference action on Friday night with a trip to East Chapel Hill. Orange is 6-5, 0-1 in the Big 8 Conference.

If the standards for a technical foul that applied to Orange in the waning seconds of a tie game apply to the rest of high school basketball in North Carolina, head coaches may want to consider seat belts for their assistants immediately.

After leading 47-39 with 1:36 remaining, the Southern Lee Cavaliers finished the game with a 13-0 run to defeat the Panthers 50-47 inside Cavalier Gymnasium in Sanford on Wednesday night.

In its final nonconference game of the season, it appeared Orange was set to pull off its biggest win under Derryl Britt’s young tenure. They lead 50-45 with 1:00 remaining against a Southern Lee squad with a 10-3 record.

After Octavious Flack scored on a stickback basket with :50.1 remaining, controversy took over. Machai Holt missed the front end of a one-and-one. After Stewart Judd grabbed the rebound for Southern Octavious Flack was fouled on a three-point attempt by Joey McMullin, who contended Flack flopped. It McMullin’s fifth foul. Flank knocked down all three free throws to even the game at 47.

On the subsequent inbounds, Holt tried to dribble through a double team and fell to the floor. There was no whistle, leading to an immediate Orange protest from the bench. In the heat of the moment, a referee called a technical foul with ten seconds remaining in the game on an Orange assistant because he left his seat.

Southern Lee’s Khalil Ridges scored the game-winning point on a back-end of the technical free-throw. Se’Vion Clay sank two free throws with 6.5 seconds remaining, and Joey Franklin’s three-point attempt to tie the game fell short at the buzzer.

Flack led Southern Lee with 17 points, while Clay finished with 15. Mekai Collins had 17 to lead the Panthers, while McMullin had 12. Holt, coming off a career-high 33 points against Western Guilford on Saturday, finished with ten.

The final two minute ruined a solid quarter for the Panthers, where they took their first lead of the second half and held the Cavaliers to only two points in the opening 5:02. McMullin hit back-to-back field goals to vault the Panthers into a 41-37 lead.

It appeared Orange would cruise from there. Collins scored off a lay-in from a gorgeous dribble drive to put Orange ahead 43-37, which was followed by Clay being called for traveling. Holt scored off a field goal with 2:03 remaining. Collins’ free throw extended Orange’s lead to 47-39 with 1:36 left, but it would be Orange’s final points.

Orange, coming off a 5th place finish in the Eastern Guilford Holiday Hoops Tournament, struggled out of the gates. They didn’t score in the opening 4:05. Clay and Flack each scored eight points in the first half to put Southern Lee ahead 27-22 at halftime.

Midway through the third quarter, Collins had only five points, but scored Orange’s final nine points of the third quarter to narrow the Cavaliers’ lead to 37-33.

Wednesday’s game was the start of a stretch of five games in nine days for Orange. Their final 14 games will be Big 8 Conference contests, starting with a road trip to East Chapel Hill on Friday night. Hillsboroughsports.com will carry the Orange women’s game starting at 6, followed by the men’s game at 7:30.

Avery Jenkins is the latest member of Orange’s 100-win club.

On a night when the Panthers honored Levi Anderson for winning his 100th match over the weekend, Jenkins pinned Northwood’s Nolan Ellis in 1:31 to become the 47th Orange grappler to win 100 matches. Jenkins, a senior wrestling at 170 pounds, is now 23-6 on the season.

Anderson claimed his 100th win during the West Stanly Duals on Saturday in Oakboro. After scoring a major decision victory over West Stanly’s Jared Watson for his 99th career win, Anderson claimed a forfeit victory against Richmond County for win #100.

Jenkins picked up his 99th win in the West Stanly Duals when he pinned Jamohan Short of Richmond County.

Overall, Orange powered past the Chargers 51-28 to improve to 18-1 overall, 3-0 in the Big 8 Conference. The result all but guarantees that next Wednesday’s match against Chapel Hill will decide the Big 8 Championship.

Orange started the match with five consecutive pins. At 138 pounds, Tayton Alvis pinned Northwood’s Grant Ray in 3:59. At 145 pounds, Anderson earned career victory #101 way pinning Nathan Davis in 36 seconds. Caleb Brimmer pinned Grant Leonard at 152 pounds in 1:56. At 160 pounds, Nathan Hecht defeated Montgomery Allgood in 3:33. Jenkins’ victory propelled Orange to a 30-0 lead.

Donald Hicks pinned Harrison Knapp in 3:14 at 195 pounds. Hicks, in his first season starting for Orange, is now 26-5 on the season. Junior heavyweight Juan Navarro ensured the overall victory with a 6-2 victory over Abraham Pena.

Joshua Dunn picked up a forfeit victory at 106 pounds. At 113, freshman Kessel Summer pinned Zion Verinder in 45 seconds.

Orange will spend Friday and Saturday in the Quentin Crosby Tournament at Dudley High School in Greensboro.

The Cedar Ridge wrestling team returned to action at Red Wolves Gymnasium on Wednesday night. The Northern Knights defeated Cedar Ridge 47-24.

Cedar Ridge senior Darius McLeod earned his 80th career win with a forfeit victory at 132 pounds. Katie Watkins picked up a forfeit win at 126 pounds. At 170 pounds, Cedar Ridge’s Wyatt Robinson pinned Deven Cates in 3:37. Red Wolves sophomore Cutter Tate earned a forfeit win at 220 pounds. Because of a high number of forfeits on both sides, there were only five matches contested on the night.

Last month, Cedar Ridge competed in the Western Harnett Duals in Lillington. While the Red Wolves lost all five of the dual matches, there was drama against Apex. After Jonas Urban claimed a forfeit victory at 195 pounds, the dual match was evened at 30-30. The Cougars were ruled the winners after it was determined that they had scored more takedowns in the match.

Overall, Daina Pritchard went 3-2 in the Western Harnett Duals. Pritchard pinned Apex’s Mason Arbogast in 5:32. In a 60-12 loss to Lumberton, Pritchard pinned Zyon Smith in 3:00. Against Terry Sanford, Pritchard scored another pin, finishing off Leo Reyes in 3:26.

After being idle for nearly two weeks, the Red Wolves’ match against Northern started a string of three events in three days. Cedar Ridge will return to action on Thursday night against Chapel Hill, a dual match that was postponed from last month because of the winter storm. On Friday, Cedar Ridge will participate in the Glenn Duals.

This week’s Orange Panther of the Week is basketball forward Machai Holt. On Saturday, Holt scored a career-high 33 points as Orange defeated Western Guilford 88-80 in the 5th place game of the Eastern Guilford Christmas Holiday Basketball Tournament in Gibsonville. Holt has been in double figures in seven of Orange’s nine games this season. He scored 22 points against Williams in Burlington on December 6. Orange is 6-4 as they head into 2019. They start the new year against Southern Lee on Wednesday in Sanford.

This week’s Cedar Ridge Red Wolf of the Week is Rory Legg-Bell. This fall, the Cedar Ridge men’s cross country team qualified for the 3A state championships. At the 3A Mideast Regionals, Cedar Ridge finished fifth. Senior Rory Legg-Bell, who suffered from hip and knee injuries early in the season, finished 9th and was named All-Region. For the second year in a row, Legg-Bell was named All-Big 8 Conference. At the 3A state championships in Kernersville on November 4, Legg-Bell finished 60th in his final race for the Red Wolves. This winter, Legg-Bell is a member of the Cedar Ridge men’s swimming team for the first time.

A combination of experience and youth served the Orange women’s basketball team very well two years ago.

In 2016-17, Coach B.J. Condron mixed seven seniors with four sophomores to produce a 26-2 season, the most successful season in modern team history.

Those sophomores from two years ago are now seniors, and they’re leading a team that’s regularly playing four freshmen, two of them starting. The experience gap may be unusual, but they’re getting results.

In their most impressive victory of the season, senior Icez Barnett scored 15 points and grabbed ten rebounds to lead Orange past Franklinton 55-48 on Friday night in the semifinals of the Granville Central Holiday Tournament.

The Lady Panthers will face Ravenscroft in Saturday’s night championship game. The Ravens (9-4) cruised past Vance Charter 52-33 in the nightcap.

Orange erased a 31-24 halftime deficit to end Franklinton’s eight-game winning streak.

Katherine Wilkins led the Rams (7-3) with 17 points, while Meaghan Dohnert had eleven. The Rams opened the game on a 7-2 run before Orange rattled off seven consecutive points. The game was tied 11-11 going into the second quarter.

Orange opened the second half on a 7-0 run, with Barnett factoring in on all the baskets. Lauren Cates, who finished with ten points and three steals, swiped the opening pass of the 2nd half and fed Barnett for the opening field goal. Cates hit a 3-pointer after senior center Kate Burgess grabbed an offensive rebound. Freshman Aaliyah Harris tied the game at 31-31 on a lay-in on a 2-on-1 break, courtesy of an assist from Cates.

As has been the case for much of the year, Barnett produced while also racking up fouls. She played most of the fourth quarter with four fouls.

Harris, who has been pressed into starting duty after an ankle injury to senior Grace Dively on December 14 against Lee County, finished with 12 points.

The Orange defense, which allowed 20 points in the 2nd quarter to the Rams, held Franklinton to 17 in the entire second half. The Lady Panthers forced 25 turnovers and came up with 16 steals, including five from freshman Jarmil Wingate.

There were seven lead changes in the third quarter, but Harris’ stickback basket with :23 remaining in the 3rd quarter started an 8-0 Orange run that put them in the lead for the rest of the game.

Barnett stated the 2nd half with a steal off full-court pressure and scored on a coast-to-coast layup. After Cates fed Wingate for a lay-in, Orange pushed its lead to 45-39 with 6:25 remaining. Franklinton’s Rebekah Smith, who registered six points and eleven rebounds, scored after grabbing her own rebound to cut the Lady Panther lead to 50-48 with 2:48 left. Franklinton had a chance to tie with 1:27 remaining, but Smith missed a short jumper. Grace Andrews grabbed the rebound and, after an Orange timeout, scored her only points off a ten-foot jumper set up by Barnett, which put the game away.

If Orange can defeat Ravenscroft for the tournament championship, it will serve as a good omen. The last time Orange won a holiday tournament, it came in the 2016 Eastern Alamance Holiday Hoops tournament in Mebane. The Lady Panthers went on to win the Big 8 regular season and tournament championships.

Grace Andrews played a career-high 16 minutes in Orange’s 55-48 victory over Franklinton on Friday night in the semifinals of the Granville Central Holiday Tournament. Andrews scored a critical field goal with 1:24 remaining to put Orange ahead 52-48 off an assist from Icez Barnett. Orange coach B.J. Condron says Andrews has put in some extra effort in practice to see more game time. Andrews is also the starting 2nd baseman for the Orange softball team. As a freshman, she recorded the last out when Orange won the 3A state championship over Piedmont. The Lady Panthers, who are now 7-2, will face Ravenscroft in the championship game on Saturday night at 8:00.