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Orange boys hang on to beat Fluvanna County

Orange County watched its eight-point fourth-quarter lead dissipate, but managed to get to the free-throw line late to come away with a road win over Fluvanna County on Friday night.

 

The Hornets converted 5 of 6 attempts from the foul line down the stretch to snap a five-game skid and secure the 60-56 victory in coach Corey Edmonds’ return to his alma mater.

 

“We’ve had some games where things have gotten tough, and we’ve kind of hung our heads. I was like, ‘guys, we can’t have another here we go again moment,’” Edmonds said. “We made a run and then did some silly stuff, but we maintained and dug in and we got stops, ended up hitting some shots and making enough free throws to win the game.”

 

Fluvanna (4-12) held a one-point advantage at the end of the third, but was plagued by turnovers in the fourth, a number of which were caused by Orange’s stingy defense.

 

The Hornets mounted a comeback with an 11-0 tear, highlighted by a 3-pointer from Shavonn Ellis and baskets from Trey Hill and Trevon Smith to close out the run.

 

The Flucos ended their scoring drought with 1:40 to play on a nifty shot underneath from Antonio Pelham.

 

Orange answered on another inside basket from Smith before Fluvanna went on a run of its own.

 

Free throws from Nick Washington and Pelham pulled the Flucos within four (55-51) before Washington made a nice drive to the hoop to cut the lead to two with just under a minute remaining.

 

Then Jason Lee got a steal, managed to get the ball into the hands of Pelham, who kicked it back out to him and drained a 3-pointer in the corner as Fluvanna took the 56-55 lead.

 

However, with 31 seconds remaining, Smith drew the foul on the other end and converted a pair of free throws to give the visitors the edge.

 

Lee was called for a charge with 9.5 seconds to play, sending Smith back to the foul line, where he made two more. Jordan Shook added another free throw to seal the win. Smith scored eight of his 18 points in the final frame.

 

“They got some critical steals down the stretch and beat us down the floor,” Fluvanna veteran coach Munro Rateau said.”We did everything we needed to do to win except keep them off the foul line. We’re getting better, it’s just not showing on the scoreboard.”

 

The Flucos went on a second-quarter surge sparked by Pelham’s play. The sophomore sharpshooter scored 14 in the frame, including three 3-pointers, and helped Fluvanna to a 20-18 lead midway through the quarter. Pelham also got an offensive putback on his own shot, drew the foul and completed the three-point play as Fluvanna took a 25-23 advantage. The Flucos held a 31-28 lead at halftime.

 

Orange (4-11) adjusted its gameplan in the second half to key on Pelham, who poured in a game-high 24 points (five threes) to go along with 12 rebounds.

 

“Sometimes you want to get in their faces and sometimes you want to play zone, but Pelham was hitting a lot of shots, so I was like guys, we’ve got to put some pressure [on him] and hopefully he’ll miss some or put it on the ground and that will allow us to be aggressive,” Edmonds said. “I think our aggressiveness made them speed up the pace a little bit.”

 

Elijah Smoot paced Orange with 22 points. Washington finished with 15 points for Fluvanna, and Lee added 11.

 

Fluvanna travels to Albemarle on Tuesday while Orange visits Monticello.

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