The Super Bowl, traveling to South Carolina and back, and the common cold delayed the TCN/SWW boys' basketball rankings for a day — but I wouldn't let these things keep them down for long.
One playoff team finds itself slipping in the polls this week after three straight disheartening losses...
We're a day late and possibly a dollar short, but here are this week's TCN/SWW rankings for our area's girls' basketball teams. There are just two weeks left in the regular season counting this week's action.
Tri-Eight wrestling standings
Cary 7-0
Panther Creek 6-1
Green Hope 5-2
Athens Drive 4-3
Fuquay-Varina 3-4
Apex 2-5
Middle Creek 1-6
Lee County 0-7
--One interesting thing about these standings is there were absolutely no upsets. Everyone simply lost to the team(s) above them in the standings while Cary lost to nobody. The conference championship is being held today at Cary High.
The school board has voted to yank the Apex High to Athens Drive High moves.
Board members seemed to be swayed by the arguments that it wouldn't lower the LI rate much at Athens. Additionally, board members said that they think Athens Drive will get a larger than expected infusion of non LI students because kids are being reassigned from Southeast Raleigh High.
Those nodes, focused around the Enchanted Oaks subdivision, have clamored for years to go to Athens Drive. But they've been at Southeast Raleigh for diversity. As a result, only a third of the kids there actually go to Southeast.
Staff recommended moving Enchanted Oaks for feeder pattern issues because they're also moving the middle school to Dillard Drive, which feeds into Athens.
Eleanor Goettee and Ron Margiotta led the fight here to drop the Apex High moves. It's these parents, from MacGregor Downs and surrounding neighborhoods, that have been among the most vocal critics of the reassignment plan.
Not much changed this week in the TCN/SWW boys' basketball rankings. But this week could loom large for those still trying to move up in the standings as we expand to 10 teams with Fuquay-Varina entering this week. To see where the Bengals entered, click the blue "Read More" button below.
This week, we're the TCN/SWW rankings instead of just the TCN rankings. This of course, is because we're The Cary News to the towns of Morrisville and Cary, but the Southwest Wake News (I leave out News and abbreviate it SWW for Southwest Wake) to Apex, Holly Springs and Fuquay-Varina.
Speaking of Fuquay-Varina, we welcome that school to our weekly rankings of the area's girls and boys basketball teams.
In this week's TCN/SWW girls' rankings, Green Hope reached their highest ranking of the year.
Boys' Scores
Athens Drive 62, Apex 58 (story coming later)
Cary Academy 45, Durham Academy 37
Lee County 79, Cary 71
Cary Christian 66, Halifax Academy 34
Middle Creek 78, Green Hope 55
Panther Creek 89, Fuquay-Varina 45
Girls' Scores
Cary Academy 49, Durham 37
Green Hope 59, Middle Creek 48 (story coming later)
Cary Christian 75, Halifax 39
Fuquay-Varina 46, Panther Creek 36 (story coming later)
Cary 64, Lee County 61
Apex 68, Athens Drive 63 (story coming later)
The biggest game in our area this week is by far the re-match of the Apex and Athens Drive girls' basketball teams.
Apex remains undefeated and is now ranked No. 4 in the state. Athens Drive is essentially 12th, as they are the second-leading vote getter left out of the top-10.
For the last three years, Athens Drive has owned the Tri-Eight conference. The Jaguars ran their in-conference winning streak up to 33 entering this season, but in the conference opener they fell to Apex, 50-47.
It's evident that the Lady Jags feel as though they have something to prove.
“For the past three years, we’ve been winning the conference and beating Apex, and now it seems like they’re coming up and trying to take the conference away,” Athens guard Alyx Ingram said. “But they’re not going to.”
Sports Editor J. Mike Blake looks at the girls' and boys' basketball standings in the Tri-Eight and gives his commentary on this Friday's games.
Is there any doubt which team should be atop the TCN rankings?
Here's a look at this week's TCN boys' basketball rankings:
