Carla Allen knows what a good story is. Allen is also good at pushing the story forward and adding a new element to make the tale even better.

When Allen heard of the Wildcats’ new ritual this postseason to use royal blue poker chips as a reminder for the team to be “All In,” she wanted to get the whole school involved.

Millbrook held a pep rally Friday afternoon to celebrate the Wildcats reaching the NCHSAA 4A championship game for the second consecutive year. During the event, many teachers and staff members wore the same T-shirt: A royal blue shirt with “We’re All In” going across the chest.

Morgan McGee of Durham Hillside and Maddie McCallie of Durham Riverside shared PAC-Six 4A girls basketball player of the year award.

During Sanderson’s playoff run, the team hasn’t run away from using superstition as part of its success. In fact, the Spartans have been adamant about keeping their new superstition going.

Assistant coach Raymond Hammond said it all started with the bus the team has used during the postseason.

“All coaches have superstitions,” Hammond said. “Every time we’ve got on the bus we’ve been successful.”

The Spartans described their bus as the ugliest one the school has. That’s because it is more than 20 years old, making it the oldest one at Sanderson. And yes, it takes a few times for the engine to get started.

“It’s really old,” said Dashawna Smith, a senior guard who laughed at the situation.

The Spartans (20-8) stared using the bus two weeks ago for the Cap Eight conference tournament because it was large enough to transport both the varsity team and JV players who wanted to attend the postseason games.

Sanderson is 4-1 since using the bus. The only loss was to Millbrook, the team the Spartans will play tonight at the Crown Arena in Fayetteville.

The Fila Deep South Classic, which includes 216 girls basketball teams, will be played this weekend in Chapel Hill and Raleigh. Teams from 33 states will participate in the three-day event.

In Chapel Hill, games will be played at the University of North Carolina's Smith Center and Fetzer Gym. In Raleigh, they'll play at N.C. State's Reynolds Coliseum and Carmichael Gym (not to be confused with UNC's Carmichael Auditorium.)

Play begins this morning and the finals are Sunday.

Kristen Gaffney of Green was named to the Associated Press all-state girls basketball team as selected by sports writers throughout the state. South Central Pitt's Danielle Butts and Janesha Ebron also were selected.

Terry Whisnant of Cherryville and Tyler Lewis of Forsyth Country Day lead the boys team.

Thomas Sumpter of Durham Jordan leads the Piedmont Athletic 4-A all-conference boys basketball team. Kim Annas of Jordan and Pam Adams of Northern Durham are the coaches of the year.

Scott Campbell retired from his position as coach of Apex's girls basketball team Sunday. Campbell has coached the Cougars for the past 20 years.

Campbell has won more 450 wins and led the Cougars to a 10-13 overall record and a 7-9 mark in the Tri-Nine conference last season.

Very seldom do we high school reporters get a chance to talk to administrators of the schools we cover. But with the circumstances this week surrounding the importance of Millbrook having both its girls and boys basketball teams playing for a state title tomorrow, I felt Principal Dana King needed to have a voice in our coverage.

I’m really glad I had a chance to meet King, who not only was Wake County’s Principal of the Year in 2010 but she is an avid sports fan. She knows her basketball and she was able to give a good sense of the pulse at Millbrook right now. She’s been at the school for 10 years and has seen the Wildcats only come close to a state championship. Now with both teams playing for the titles for the first time, here’s what King had to say about the school rallying around its basketball teams.

King on Millbrook’s victories in Fayetteville in the Eastern Regional final:

“I was in tears because it was such an emotional day and because we’re the underdogs. And those are our kids. It was high visibility for the school. We were in the stands saying to each other ‘What does this means?’ For our Millbrook Maniacs it meant you run around the gym.”

On what makes both teams refreshing:

“I’ve been here those years when someone was the perceived superstar on the team and the attention is on that person first and everybody might get mention if they have a good game. For some reason both teams have figured out the right combination of playing for each other and doing what the coach tells them. I think this team understands they have to work together to play at this level. It’s fun to see that everybody has a place on this game and that everyone needs to contribute.”

April Mcrae of Southeast Raleigh was selected as the Greater Neuse 4-A girls basketball player of the year. Nicole Meyers was chosen as the girls coach of the year.

For the past few day Millbrook has become the center of the high school basketball in the Triangle. Both the boys and the girls team have advanced to the NCHSAA 4-A Eastern Regional championship. Each team has an interesting story. Here’s what I learned Thursday when I visited the girls team.

For most the season, the public perception was that Green Hope had the best team in the area thanks to the great success of guard Kristen Gaffney. The star junior who average 30 points a game this season suffered a right ankle injury that prevented her from playing against Millbrook in the sectional championship game. It was this round where most people expect Millbrook’s season to end, yet the Wildcats went on the win 48-39, and coach Chris East said his girls want to keep proving people wrong.

“We read blogs and newspapers about how good the Tri Nine was, and in reality, I thought the Cap Eight was the toughest conference and those last games were so close that they felt like playoff games,” East said.