Norris, who celebrated her 60th birthday last Sunday, recorded win No. 499 with her Tigers’ 88-13 wipeout of Orange on Thursday night, according to CHHS officials.

That could have been No. 500 had CHHS played Wednesday night as planned. Chapel Hill was supposed to have played at Northern Vance (1-12 overall), but the game was moved to this week because of the severe storms that swept through the Piedmont on Wednesday night.

“I would’ve liked to have played Wednesday, but it’s just as well we didn’t,” Norris said. “Those storms hit right when we would have been on the bus home. Those winds were something. I wouldn’t have wanted to be out there driving the bus in that storm.”

The game at Northern Vance, already postponed once because of snow, was rescheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday in Henderson. It’ll be part of a triple-header, with the boys’ JV tem playing at 4:30 p.m. and the CHHS varsity boys playing at 7:30 p.m.

The change makes for a long week for CHHS. The girls’ varsity plays Tuesday at Southern Vance and Friday at Oxford Webb -- giving the Tigers their three longest conference trips of the year in one four-night window.

“That’s just the way it worked out,” Norris said, unruffled.

Norris also was underwhelmed by the thought of getting her 500th win. She’s reached lots of ‘00’ plateaus in uer career, and moved on.

“It just means I’ve been really fortunate to have had a lot of really good kids and a lot of really good athletes come through our system,” Norris said.

“I honestly think this means more for my family – my sons John and Jason and my husband Ronny. They’ve made a lot of sacrifices over the years to let me be able to continue coaching.”

Norris coached Chapel Hill volleyball teams to NCHSAA state championships in 1994 and 2003, and the CHHS girls’ basketball team to a state championship in 1981. By Chapel Hill High’s reckoning, in 35 years of coaching, Norris has a won-lost record of 710-248 in volleyball (the most wins by any active coach) and 499-374 in basketball.

Last year, the N.C. High School Athletic Association has named Norris as its 2012 women’s Toby Webb Coach of the Year, recognizing her as the state’s best coach in girls’ high school sports.

No. 499

Chapel Hill (18-1 overall, 5-0 in the Carolina-6 Conference) had zero trouble in earning an 88-13 win Thursday at Orange – as in holding the Panthers to zero points in the fourth quarter. After taking a 43-9 halftime lead, CHHS held Orange scoreless for the game’s final 8:53.

Autumn West scored 14 points with seven steals, leading to 6-of-7 shooting from the floor and four assists for teammates. Raziyah Farrington was the game’s leadig scorer with 15 points for CHHS.

Boys win 52-30

In Friday night’s boy’s game, played at Chapel Hill High School, the Tigers held Orange to a single point in the third quarter and scoreless for 7:44 of the second half, turning what had been a 29-25 game at haftime into a 22-point rout

Chapel Hill (15-4 overall, 4-1 conference) led 39-25 before Anthony Vanhook rebounded an Orange miss and fed it on the run to Treshawn Craig, who slammed the alley-oop pass home for a monstrous dunk that woke the home crowd from its lethargy and sparked Chapel Hill’s closing 17-5 run.

Stephen Himmelberg scored Chapel Hill’s last eight points on 8-for-8 free throw shooting in the final 1:13, including two technical free throws after Orange’s Jalen Pittman argued about his fifth foul with 18 seconds remaining.