Friday, Feb. 05, 2010

Mustangs down P.C.

Only a half-game separates Panther Creek and Middle Creek’s boys basketball teams as their race for second place in the Tri-Nine Conference makes its turn to the final week.

Middle Creek (14-6, 9-3) made sure of this by taking down the Catamounts (12-7, 9-4) on Friday, defending its home court with a 48-45 win.

The teams split the regular season series and are the only two Tri-Nine teams remaining with a shot for second. Each team has three games scheduled for next week with Middle Creek having an fourth game on Saturday with Lee County.

“It’s big from the [2-seed] perspective,” Mustangs. coach David Kushner said. “It’s also big because we hadn’t beaten them in this gym in three years. They’ve really had our number.”

Neither team had played in nine days thanks to the Jan. 29 snow that caused Wake County Public Schools to cancel classes and postpone athletic events.

The rust was evident from the opening tip. The score after the first quarter had Panther Creek up 10-6 and the two teams entered halftime tied at 19.

However, Middle Creek was the first to snap out of its layoff-induced funk and opened the third quarter by making six of its first seven shots. The Mustangs pulled ahead 33-32 going into the fourth.

A 10-4 run to open the final period had Middle Creek in command for most of the fourth. But missed free throws – Middle Creek was just 1-of-7 in the quarter – left the door open for P.C.

The Catamounts had two game-tying 3-point attempts clank of the rim on the game’s final possession. Coach Travis Chapman’s team turned the ball over 22 times and connected on just 1-of-10 3-pointers.

“We didn’t execute offensively,” Chapman said. “We just didn’t execute on either end of the floor.”

Rashad Elliott led Middle Creek with 14 points. He was joined by Garrett Leatham (12) in double-figures. Jon Hood had 13 to lead P.C. and was the only Catamount to score more than seven.