Orange County senior Sihle Mthethwa was supposed to play an entirely different role before the Hornets’ point guard J.J. McDonald went down with a knee injury just three days before the start of the season.
“He’s a leader and I played him off the ball because he shoots it so well and he’s really dynamic off the ball,” said Orange coach Adam Utz. “Asking him to step into that role three days before our first game, he’s done an excellent job with that.”
Mthethwa showed he’s pretty dynamic on the ball too, shifting to point guard in the season opener against Louisa County, pouring in 21 points in a 41-30 victory over the Lions. The win was the program’s first regular season victory over the Lions since January of 2014, snapping an 11-game regular season losing streak to their county border rivals.
“I think we can execute plays a little better but we made up for it on the defensive end,” said Mthethwa, who played a role with an assist or as the scorer in all but 14 of the Hornets’ points.
Mthethewa had a team high three assists and three rebounds while speedster Doug Newsome finished with 13 points on the night. Along with that lockdown defensive effort Mthethwa referenced, there was enough offense to push the Hornets to 1-0 on the year. With Louisa turning to an entirely new lineup this year after the departure of a transformative group of seniors, Orange put some pressure on the Lions’ young players and created some serious problems for Louisa..
“We could’ve done better in some of our traps and we’ve got a lot of work to do, but it was pretty good,” Newsome said.
While Newsome’s right, there’s work to be done, it was a strong building block to get the season going.
“Any basketball game limiting points like that is great,” Utz said. “I thought we did a pretty good job on defensive rebounding — I was really proud of our effort on the defensive end.”
Mthethwa scored 14 first half points to help Orange build a 21-14 advantage at the break while the Lions struggled to find their footing. The Hornets nearly doubled up that halftime lead with a strong third quarter, pushing the lead to 36-23 heading into the fourth.
The Lions got nine points each from Nathaniel Feagans and Teyachta Harris and Armani Comfort had a nice run out in the first half off a steal, but offense was hard to come by for the revamped Lions.
While schedules can change at any time, Orange’s next game currently on the schedule is January 4 on the road against Fluvanna County. After a one-week break, Louisa is set to host Fluvanna Tuesday, a few days before the Hornets’ matchup with the Flucos.
