Coming off a narrow loss to Powhatan at home, Orange County finished its week on a strong note with an 81-65 on the road against Fluvanna County with Marshall Williby have a big shooting night and Brandon Franklin putting together a solid double-double along the way.
“The first half was kind of brutal,” said Orange coach Adam Utz. “They always say basketball is a game of runs and tonight it was definitely a game of runs.”
With both teams flying in the first, Orange was able to take an 18-15 lead over the Flucos with Williby leading the way with a pair of three pointers. Of the first 18 points scored, the Hornets got 12 of them from beyond the arc.
Fluvanna County rallied to tie things up in the second half with Andrew Pace scoring 12 of his team’s 23 points in the second quarter to knot things up at 38-38 going into the break.
Kobe Edmonds had nine points in the third quarter to pace the Flucos, Orange was able to establish a comfortable lead in the third with Williby hitting another pair of three’s and then JJ McDonald joining him with some outside shooting to make it a 6-point lead going into the fourth.
“It was a tough first half but I thought we got a lot of good minutes out of JJ McDonald tonight,” Utz said. “But the big thing we talked about was withstand, outlast. In the second half we made some good adjustments, went on some runs and then did a good job of closing the game out.”
In the fourth, Orange’s defense was able to limit Fluvanna to just a pair of field goals. The Flucos picked up seven of their 11 points in the final frame at the free throw line. The Hornets on the other hand, saw Franklin break loose offensively with seven points down the stretch and with the Flucos unable to shake Orange at the charity stripe, the visitors wrapped up the win at 81-65
Williby led all scorers with his 22 points fueled by six 3-pointers. Franklin finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds.
“Brandon’s one of those guys that’s 6-foot-1 but can play like he’s 6-foot-5 because he can jump out of the gym,” Utz said. “He was a force and a double-double like that tonight was just huge.”
Jaylen Alexander’s 10 points gave the Hornets three players in double figures.
For Fluvanna, Pace led with 21 points. The Flucos also had three players in double figures with Edmonds finishing with 14 and John Rittenhouse adding 13.
Orange steps out of the JD on Saturday to play host to Spotsylvania while Fluvanna will travel to Charlottesville on Tuesday.
