The Tri-Nine 4-A Conference continues its league tournament today with four semifinal games at Panther Creek High.

Today's pairings are:

No. 2 Athens girls vs. No. 3 Middle Creek, 4 p.m.
No. 3 Middle Creek boys vs. No. 3 Panther Creek, 5:30 p.m.
No. 1 Green Hope girls vs. No. 4 Apex, 7 p.m.
No. 1 Apex boys vs. No. 4 Athens Drive, 8:30 p.m.

The PAC Six 4-A will begin its conference basketball tournament on Wednesday night Hillside, East Chapel Hill, Jordan and Southern Durham.

Garner and Knightdale host doubleheaders tonight. Semifinals scheduled for Wednesday.

Riverside, Enloe and Millbrook keep Top 10 berths.

First team:

Kristen Gaffney, Green Hope (SWakeSports girls player of the year)

Keisha Gatling, Athens Drive

Dakota Dukes, Cary Christian

Bethany Collins, Apex

Rachel Collins, Athens Drive

Second team:

Kristine Rishel, Middle Creek

Mickayla Sanders, Cary Academy

Amber Battle, Middle Creek

Caitlyn Ranson, Green Hope

Lainey Childrey, Athens Drive

Third team:

Abby Pettit, Cary Christian

Kelly Andrejko, Cary Academy

Camille Forbes, Green Hope

Camille Baker, Fuquay-Varina

Sheriba Kersey, Fuquay-Varina

Honorable mention: Heather Muller, Apex; Tara Crosby, Cary; Jazmine Sutton, Panther Creek; Vianka Cotton, Holly Springs; Amy Van Deventer, Cary Christian; Brittany Murdock, Middle Creek

First team:

Weston Murphy, Apex (SWakeSports' boys basketball player of the year)

Mike Fogg, Apex

Connor Belicic, Apex 

Lindsey Johnson, Cary Christian

Dominique Byrd, Fuquay-Varina

Second team:

LaCurtis Latimore, Holly Springs

Stephen McAllister, Middle Creek

Rahim Jenkins, Athens Drive

Javonte Rankin, Panther Creek

Isaiah Johnson, Panther Creek

Third team:

Anthony Shelton, Cary

Ray Hubbard, Panther Creek 

Cameron Walton, Cary Academy

Jimmy Joyner, Cary Academy

Quintin Underwood, Holly Springs

Honorable mention: Chris Thomas, Cary Christian; Calvin Winfrey, Cary Christian; Hurley Cannady, Athens Drive; Austin Brannen, Cary; Leon Hargrove, Middle Creek; Karim Sako, Panther Creek

Ravenscroft won the boys and girls regular-season championships in the TISAC and are the top seeds in the tournament this week.

I just got through filling out all our local teams' conference
tournament brackets on bracketmaker.com. Now you can get into March
Madness mode and fill out your predictions for this year's tournaments
by simply clicking on "Predict It!" at the top of each page.

A lot can happen from now till the end of the week when it comes to the
Tri-Nine Conference boys basketball standings. First, you'll need to know the standings entering
this week. The top five spots have state playoff tie-ins UNLESS a team
ranked lower than fifth wins the conference tournament.

Here's a chart showing each team's conference record with how many games they have left and where:

Now follow along as best you can. The possibilities are seemingly endless:

• Apex has locked up No. 1 outright
• Middle Creek, Panther Creek and Cary could all wind up in second place. It's likely that one or more of the teams will tie. If that happens, the tiebreaker for a home playoff game would go to the team that goes the farthest in the conference tournament.
• Cary is perhaps the most flexible team. They could finish tied for second, win that tiebreaker and enter the tournament on the opposite side of the bracket from Apex. Or they could lose twice and watch Athens win all three to overtake them for fourth. Or they could lose twice and watch Athens win two of three and win a tiebreaker for fifth. And in this tournament, nobody wants to finish fifth if they don't have to.
• Athens needs to win to get in. Nobody behind them can amass seven conference wins. The Jags will have three chances at that this week, two coming against top-3 teams.
• Fuquay-Varina is out of contention for fifth. They were swept by Athens, which means even if the Bengals win and the Jags lose out, AD would have that tiebreaker.
• Green Hope is also out of contention for fifth, but not necessarily locked in for the play-in game. With the right breaks, they could still be the 6-seed.
• Fuquay and Lee were two of the hottest teams last month. Lee has won five of their last six while F-V went 4-4 in January.

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.