CARY - After all was said and done with the 2009 Tri-Nine Holiday Challenge, the host conference went 8-4 against outside competition including 5-1 in the boys basketball pool. Green Hope and Panther Creek co-hosted this season's challenge, with Green Hope hosting the boys competition and Panther Creek the girls'.

The Falcons and Catamounts were the only two Tri-Nine Conference participants in the girls competition and were joined by Athens Drive in the boys' round-robin-style tournament. No Tri-Nine teams faced one another.

Green Hope teams go undefeated: Green Hope's teams wrapped up play on Wednesday with two wins that came down to the final seconds. The Falcons were a combined 5-0 in the Challenge.

Despite playing at home, the boys had to overcome a raucous crowd that made the trip up from Pittsboro in its 44-43 win over Northwood. And at no point was the crowd more vocal than the game's final two minutes.

Green Hope senior James Earl made just the front end of a one-and-one to give the Falcons a three-point lead, but it was cut to one with 37.3 seconds left.

It appeared Green Hope had escaped the 2008 2-A state runner-up when junior Max Povse brought down his 17th rebound of the night, but the Chargers tied him up for a jump ball with 2.6 seconds left. Chris Flemmings, fouled before the inbounds pass, missed his one-and-one and Northwood called timeout for one final play with 1.9 seconds left.

Northwood couldn't control the pass on the final play, and Green Hope improved to 5-7 after its second win of the challenge despite having no players in double-digit scoring. The Falcons also defeated Wake Forest-Rolesville 60-52 on Monday.

Povse, a 6-foot-7 junior, came off the bench to score seven points to go along with his career-high rebound total.

The Green Hope girls team improved to 14-0 on the season by the slimmest of margins on Wednesday at Panther Creek High School.

As she's done once before this season, sophomore Kristen Gaffney put the game away in the closing seconds on free throws.

Gaffney went to the line with her team down by one to Enloe with 15 seconds to go. Gaffney sank both to reverse the lead to one point in the Lady Falcons' favor. Enloe's next shot missed, and Ashley Williams tacked on two more free throws with 0.3 seconds left to give Green Hope a 64-61 win.

The Lady Falcons also defeated Millbrook 58-46 on Monday night and Sanderson 63-39 on Tuesday. In the Sanderson game, Gaffney had 29 points, 11 rebounds, eight assists and seven steals.

Panther Creek gains experience: In the final game of the Tri-Nine Challenge for Panther Creek's boys basketball team, the Catamounts struggled to find their shooting touch, taking 9:18 to reach double-figure scoring.

But thanks to a 21-9 scoring run, capped off by a John Hood dunk, the Catamounts refused to let the Cougars back in, and won 63-54.

The Catamounts fell in their only other game of the challenge as Northwood won Tuesday's meeting 62-57. It's all a learning experience for Travis Chapman's young team that finds itself in first place of the Tri-Nine Conference.

The Lady Catamounts, even younger than the boys team, lost all three games of the challenge, falling to Sanderson 42-31, Enloe 56-32 and Millbrook 39-24.

Athens' boys win two: The Athens Drive boys basketball team picked up two wins in the challenge, taking down Northwood 52-45 and Wake Forest-Rolesville 65-59. The Jaguars are now 5-6 overall.