CARY — It was your typical Panther Creek-Middle Creek affair.

Which is the Tri-Eight Conference's equivalent of the UNC-Duke rivalry.

A packed gym with both schools well represented and both sides fired up. Two of the top teams in the state. Panther Creek even wheeled out its marching band for the first time.

The host Catamounts shut down Garrius Adams and Tom Tankelewicz and grabbed control of the conference with a 60-48 win Friday.

APEX — Middle Creek 20, Athens Drive 0.

That was the score right before Athens finally scored on Tuesday night with 2:32 left in the first quarter. The Jaguars continued to fall behind even further, and trailed Middle Creek 29-8 after one.

But the No. 9 Jags clawed their way back into it, using a 19-4 third quarter and their first lead of the game at 44-43. However, the comeback bid seemed to take its toll on the Athens players' energy come the fourth quarter, as the Jaguars finally succumbed to the No. 10 Mustangs, 62-59.

"I'm proud of them because we could have just keeled over and they came back with some fight and showed a lot of heart and showed a lot of character," Athens coach Robert Clemons said. "It took a lot of energy to come back and to take the lead. It took a lot of energy and then when we needed some big shots to sustain it, we were worn out from coming back from that huge deficit."

I don't have much of a say in who makes the two GSK all-tournament teams
(there's one from each the three brackets; Girls, Holiday Summit Group and Randolph
Foundation Group), but I know those who do. And from all indications, it
appears we'll have four local players on the two teams.