APEX — After the score was deadlocked at 14-14 early in the second quarter, the Apex Cougars boys basketball team used a huge 31-5 run to take control of its rivalry game against Cary on Tuesday. Apex won handily, 66-37.

Senior wing player Mike Fogg led all scorers with 17 points, scoring 11 in the second half to widen a healthy Cougar margin.

Fogg was particularly skilled in finishing in transition — something this year's Apex team appears to have more emphasis on doing.

"He's an amazing finisher for his height," Apex coach Dave Neal said of Fogg. "He's incredibly strong ... In the second half he was awesome."

Fogg was needed for Apex to produce points, as center Weston Murphy suffered with foul trouble and his team shot 2-of-12 from 3-point territory.

"They worry about the shooters so most of the time I have an open lane," Fogg said. "If not, I kick it out to the shooters."

Apex had four players — all seniors — with at least nine points and five rebounds on the night.

Murphy recorded 14 points and seven rebounds while Connor Belicic (five rebounds) and Carson Bowen (seven) each scored nine. Fogg also pulled down five boards.

Cary went ice-cold during a the Apex run, connecting on just 2-of-11 shots from the field and missing all three free throw attempts. The Imps were just 8-of-18 at the charity stripe, while the Cougars shot 16-of-20.

After hitting seven 3-pointers in the first half of a conference-opening win against Fuquay-Varina, Cary hit just 1-of-11 taken 3-pointers on the night.

Coach Allan Gustafson said his team needed to be tougher in future games. It was the second road game in as many tries in which his team had lost by 29 or more points. The Imps are 1-0 at home, where they'll return on Friday against Holly Springs.

"We haven't played well on the road, let's be honest," Gustafson said. "I don't have a handle on this team. I don't know if we're as bad as we were at Sanderson or as good as we were against Fuquay or as bad as we were tonight but two out of three is not a good sign right now and we've got to get back to work."

Apex's defense did not allow a single Imps player to reach double digits. Through the season's first three games, no Cougars opponent has scored more than 48 points.

"Their ball pressure was really good and you've either got to be good enough to go by it or you can screen to relieve it, but whenever we tried to screen to relieve it, they would blitz the screens and cause even more problems," Gustafson said. "They were fighting through our screens — we couldn't even make an entry pass."

Despite the lopsided victory boosting their conference record to 2-0, Apex players couldn't help but think they hadn't played their best ball yet.

"We've got to get better. We started off shaky against Millbrook, started off shaky against Lee County but we came through at the end," Fogg said. "We've got to get better. That's what practice is for."