NCHSAA basketball Eastern Regionals in Greenville begin on Thursday for 4-A girls and Friday for 4-A boys. The Eastern Regional finals are on Saturday.

With our area Tri-Nine boys basketball teams now out of the playoffs — at the hands of two CAP-7 teams — I went digging through the schedules found online at the News & Observer Preps section to see how the two conferences did against one another.

In short, the CAP-7 wins hands-down.

The Tri-Nine was just 8-22 against CAP-7 teams. Seven of those wins were against Wake Forest-Rolesville and Leesville Road, which combined to go 9-37 this year. The eighth win came on a 68-62 Athens Drive win over Broughton. The two teams met a week later and Broughton mopped the floor with Athens,  71-37.

Even on the girls side, the CAP-7 has the slight edge, going 18-14 agains the Tri-Nine. Thank goodness for Green Hope and Athens — those two teams went 12-0 against the CAP-7.

This Friday will have two final CAP-7/Tri-Nine match-ups, both on the  girls side when Athens goes to Enloe and Green Hope hosts Millbrook. Green Hope defeated Millbrook 58-46 earlier this year. Athens did not face Enloe.

N.C. High School Athletic Association boys and girls basketball sectionals are scheduled for Friday night.Most games start at 7 p.m., but  the Millbrook girls game at Green Hope is scheduled for a 6:30 tip.

The Bunn girls and Cedar Ridge boys won second round games on Thursday night and play in today's third round.

Pairings for area 4-A teams are:

4-A East Boys
Garner at New Hanover; Knightdale at Fayetteville Sanford; Enloe at Durham Riverside; Broughton at Millbrook
4-A East Girls
Fayetteville Seventy-First at Clayton; Southeast Raleigh at Fayetteville
E.E. Smith; Millbrook at Green Hope; Athens Drive at Enloe

The NCHSAA boys and girls basketball tournaments continue Wednesday night with second round games.

Green Hope still No. 2 in girls 4-A rankings

Millbrook, Enloe and Durham Riverside remain in the 4-A Top 10

Garner's Stephon Drane, Enloe's Emanuel Chapman and Rocky Mount's
Tashawn Mabry have been selected to play in the 13th annual
Carolinas All-Star Basketball Classic at Myrtle Beach, S.C. The games
pit boys and girls all-star teams from North Carolina against South Carolina teams.

The North Carolina girls team includes Markeisha Gatling of Athens
Drive, Rena Wakama of Wake Forest-Rolesville and Nashika Williams of
Northern Durham.

The finals in area conference basketball tournaments are scheduled for tonight.

The NCHSAA sectionals begin on Monday and will continue on Wednesday and Friday, Feb. 26.

The NCISAA begins its boys and girls basketball tournament next week. Its championship games are schedule for Saturday, Feb. 27.

The Greater Neuse River 4-A Conference continues its league tournament with boys semifinals at Garner tonight.

No. 2 Knightdale plays No. 3 Clayton at 6 p.m. Regular-season champion Garner faces No. 4 West Johnston at 7:30.

The girls semifinals are Thursday night at Southeast Raleigh. The top-seeded Bulldogs play No. 5 Knightdale at 7:30 after No. 2 Clayton plays No. 3 East Wake at 6.

The tournament championship games will be on Friday. The games will be played at the home of the highest seeded boys team.

The Cap Seven 4-A girls basketball tournament continues tonight at Broughton.

Top-seeded Enloe plays No. 4 Broughton while No. 2 Millbrook takes on No. 6 Sanderson.

Enloe, Broughton, Millbrook and Wakefield tied for the league regular-season title, but Wakefield was upended in the first round on Tuesday night by Sanderson.

The Cap Seven boys semifinals are on Thursday at Broughton. No. 1 Millbrook plays No. 4 Broughton and No. 2 Enloe plays No. 3 Wakefield.