PEPPER PIKE, Ohio — Orange High School has never been known for its girls basketball program. Less than 10 years ago the school had to cancel the season because there weren’t enough players to field a team.
From that lowpoint, the Lions have risen to be among the best teams in the area. Monday, they clinched the Chagrin Valley Conference Chagrin Division co-championship, the first league title in the sport in school history. Wednesday they took down visiting Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin in a hard-fought non-conference battle, 48-41, to finish the regular season at 18-4. Orange is ranked No. 20 in the cleveland.com Top 25.
Because the conference title was clinched on the road, Orange cut down the nets after Wednesday's victory.
“It’s extremely special to accomplish something like that from the depth where this program was,” Orange coach Ship Collins said. “I attribute a lot of people who were here and their willingness to stick with it. All those young ladies who played for us during the times when we weren’t cutting down the nets all the way until now. You have to do those things to sustain a program.”
What Orange has now that was missing in the past is two bona fide stars, senior Casey Smith and junior Kayden Lawson. Both were named All-Ohio last year, and they are having standout seasons again this year. Against ND-CL, Smith led all players with 20 points, while Lawson had 14 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks.
“They give us energy, precision and leadership,” Collins said of the pair. “They’re talented athletes who are willing to share their talents with the rest of us in order to achieve this goal.”
With the kind of firepower that Smith and Lawson provide, it’s surprising that Orange could ever struggle to put up points. But with the score knotted at 19 after two quarters, that’s exactly what was happening. Orange struggled against ND-CL’s zone defense. Orange was sometimes able to get the ball to the basket, but rarely did it go in.
Things changed in the third quarter. Orange came out with more intensity on defense, which translated into points. The Lions hit four 3-pointers in the period as Lawson scored eight points and Smith had seven. When the quarter was over the lead was up to 39-30 and early in the fourth it was 41-30.
“They hit more shots than we did,” ND-CL coach Joe Spicuzza said. “They really did. They hit some big shots when they needed to. It’s a two-point game and they hit a 3, and now it’s a five-point game. Then they hit another 3 and suddenly it’s an eight-point game. And we couldn’t answer those.”
According to Collins, halftime was spent getting his team’s head into the game, with it being Senior Night and also a night when they would be cutting down the nets for the first time in school history.
“We had to get back to our focus,” he said. “We told them to stick together as a team and get back to our fundamentals of defense. We scored 19 points in the half, and we’ve scored 27 points in a quarter, so you just have to remember those things. They had to bring their focus back. We refocused on defense to pull it out. I do believe it, defense does win championships.”
ND-CL fought gamely in the fourth quarter, gradually cutting the deficit to four, 45-41, with 47 seconds to play. It could have been closer, but a layup spun out and then Lawson and Smith combined to make three of four three throws.
“I don’t know how that didn’t go in,” Spicuzza said. “I was already going to the referee to call a timeout and somehow the ball spun out. We certainly had good shot opportunities that we weren’t capitalizing on. You have to hand it to them. They stuck in there and they made the shots when they had to.”
Junior Emma Liberatore led ND-CL with 13 points while sophomore Erica Leinweber added nine as the team ended the regular season with a 10-12 mark.
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