The first meeting of the Wake County school board's new student assignment committee has now been set for Thursday.

School board member John Tedesco, the committee chairman, said the meeting will focus on looking at a handful of node changes for the 2010-11 school year. This includes requests from Brier Creek families to be reassigned to the new Mills Park Middle School and to stay at Panther Creek High.

The meeting will take place as the final community members of the committee are being finalized. The membership so far represents a diverse mix of people, some of whom will be well known on the blog.

 SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST FOR FINAL TWO COMMITTEE MEMBERS

CORRECTION: I HAD THE WRONG SUE KING LISTED. SEE INFO AT END OF POST.

Somehow, we managed to advance four of the 10 boys and girls
Tri-Nine teams in the playoffs and still wound up with all home games in
the second round. All four games are Tri-Nine versus CAP-7.

Looking at these
games a little closer, it's easy to see that any and all of them can go
either way. We might have four teams playing on Friday. We might have
zero.

Apex and Green Hope boys and girls basketball teams faced off on Friday, and in each case an outright Tri-Nine regular season conference championship was decided.

The Apex boys won 71-60 over Green Hope to lock up first place. The Cougars improved to 13-1 in conference play, losing to only Panther Creek by one.

Green Hope’s girls team won 85-45 to keep its perfect record 22-0 intact. The Falcons are 15-0 in Tri-Nine play entering Tuesday’s game against Holly Springs.

Just two weeks left in the basketball regular season. TheSWakeSports blog has already addressed the playoff implications as they stand
with the year winding down. But first, let's get to our snow-delayed
weekly boys basketball rankings. Once again, Apex is in the top spot,
and we had some swapping of teams at 4-5 and 9-10 this week.

Most teams only played one game this week as exams took priority for our public schools. Apex and Panther Creek played for the rights to first in the Tri-Nine, while Cary Christian used two conference wins to jump two spots as others fell.

The boys teams clearly aren't as strong as the girls' are. Only
three teams have double-digit wins and one of those just lost to our
lowest-ranked team. Parity continues to rule, so this week's rankings
were our hardest to sort out yet.

The first half of the Tri-Nine is behind us and we've got Apex and
Panther Creek at the top and a logjam of teams from 3-7. Cary Christian
got their first win over St. David's possibly ever as they and Athens
Drive are on hot streaks. Holly Springs and Cary are both struggling
but are in good playoff position and have the time and tools to rebound
before its all said-and-done. 

It took a few days for the All-GlaxoSmithKline Invitational teams to come out, so at the time of our Jan. 3 Cary News edition, we didn't know exactly how many Apex players were on the squad.

Weston Murphy, with 69 points in three games, was a lock. We learned on Monday that Connor Belicic (pictured left) with 41 GSK points, joined Murphy on the All-Tournament team for the Summitt Hospitality bracket.

Apex finished third in the bracket with wins over Wilson Greenfield and Flora MacDonald and a four-point loss to Word of God.  

BOYS BASKETBALL RANKINGS:

1. Apex (8-3, 5-1) Over break: def. Wilson Greenfield 75-68, lost
to Word of God 75-71, def. Red
Springs Flora
MacDonald Academy
64-61

What a way to make a statement. The Cougars solidified that they
are the team to beat in the Tri-Nine after topping future college stars at
Wilson Greenfield and Flora MacDonald in the GlaxoSmithKline Holiday
Invitational for a third-place finish in the Summitt Hospitality bracket.

Going into the tournament, Apex was still trying to find its
groove offensively and Weston Murphy was trying to get rolling. The Cougars
scored an average of 70 points against stiff competition and Murphy averaged 23
per on the Glaxo stage.

It’ll take an incredible effort for another Tri-Nine team to take
away the title if Apex continues to play like this.

Hey again, it's J. Mike Blake, Sports Editor of The Cary News and Southwest Wake News.

On Saturday, I gave you live updates from three GlaxoSmithKline games, and tonight I'm doing just one — Apex vs Word of God. Both teams won their opening round games as Apex surprised Greenfield thanks to Weston Murphy and his 29 points and Word of God rolled past Southern Wayne. 

This should be an interesting match-up, one with a 9 p.m. tip-off time. I'll keep you posted on all the action right around then.

• Sorry for the delay, they actually started ahead of time! And I hadn't even gotten situated with the internet here.
• After the first, it's 19-13 Word of God leads. C.J. Leslie caught an alley off the backboard and slammed all over poor Conner Belici.
• With 5:55 left in the second, it's 23-17 Word of God. Apex is hanging tough because they're forcing WOG to shoot 3-pointers and have made a lot of trips to the free throw line.
• Apex is forcing it to Murphy every time. 25-19 WOG with 5:15 to go in the first half.
• Bishop Daniels, a player I really like, threw down a double-clutch reverse jam in the open court. This team is nasty.
• 4:25 to go, 27-21 WOG.
• I wonder if Sunil Ram thinks he owns Word of God.. they named their mascot (Holy Rams) after his family.
• K.B. Boru hits a falling 3-pointer at one end to cut it to 5, then Daniels responds with a 360-layup at the other end. Then Sunil Ram gets the crowd riled up on an impressive drive! The pace here is like an Indy Car race! It's 31-26 WOG with 2:29 left.
• Daniels drove past Fogg to slam it down, but Belicic responds with a 3.
• With 1:18 left, it's 35-33 WOG.
• Apex is hanging in there thanks to its defense. WOG has been ripped in back-to-back trips down the court.
• Belicic with a highlight! He drops Word of God's Jordan Carter on a behind-the-back dribble. Only problem is he was stuffed so bad by C.J. Leslie, I think Leslie more or less dribbled his shot. He must've been four feet in the air when he sent that one downward.
• At half, it's anyone's game. 38-33 WOG.
• Leading scorer for Apex at half: Weston Murphy with 14.
• Leading scorer for WOG at half: C.J. Leslie with 13.
• Leslie, when he turns it on, is unreal. He's got two dunks and it's 44-35 WOG.
• With 4:56 left in the third, it's 48-39 WOG. Apex has gotten sloppy here and WOG is near unstoppable in the open court.
• OHHHHHH!! (I feel like the And-1 mixtape MC guy "Big Mike). Dezmine Wells took the baseline and slammed on TWO Apex defenders. Unreal.
• Belicic hits two free throws and it's 50-42 with 4:10 left in the third.
• Apex isn't following their shots like they were in the first half and it's leading to WOG transition points.
• Fogg with the tip-in and ensuing fastbreak layup brings Apex up to 53-49 with 1:25 to go.
• It should be noted Apex wanted this match-up. They have made the best of it.
• Some seats are opening up here. This place hasn't been nearly as packed as it was last year. Guess it was only a John Wall thing after all.
• Evan Hawley's jumper just before the buzzer makes it 59-52 after third quarter.
•  Took some time away from the computer, so let's get you caught up:
• Weston Murphy fouled out with 4 minutes left. It was a terrible call. Both guys going for a loose ball, Murphy had position with a WOG player pulling at the back -- and of course Murphy was whistled for the foul.
• There's 2:41 left and it's 71-63 WOG. Apex cut it to 4 right as Murphy got his fifth foul.
• Belicic gets a steal as a WOG player tried to save it and lays it in. 71-65 WOG with 1:50 left. Lot of folks headed for the exits but this one's not done.. bet Apex wishes they had Murphy still.
• Apex can't get a call. Hawley take a charge but gets whistled for the block.
• Ball don't lie! (as Rasheed Wallace says)Wells misses both freebies.
• Sunil "Holy" Ram hits a 3! 71-68 WOG with 1:05 left!
• HAHAHAHAHAHA - Leslie misses an open dunk, gets the rebound, gets fouled.
• He hits his first free throw (48.1 seconds left) and the second. 73-68.
• SUNIL HOLY RAM!! Hits another 3! Apex fouls on the other end and Leslie will shoot two with 24.9 left. 73-71 WOG.
• Leslie misses the first - 3 point game.
• Leslie blocks K.B. Boru's 3-pointer and it goes out of bounds with 9.2 left. WOG ball since an Apex player tried to save it. Timeout on the court.
• Leslie selfishly keeps the ball instead of passing it to a teammate to run out the clock. Gets fouled. Misses the first. 74-71 with 5.6 left.
• Leslie hits it. Feels like Casey struck out. 75-71 WOG wins. Apex put up quite a battle but couldn't quite take the lead.
• Murphy had 22 to lead Apex.
• Leslie had 31 to lead all scorers.