The Cougar seniors ended their home season with a 65-41 win over Athens Drive. Fittingly, the Senior Night win was due in large part to three Apex seniors. The Tri-Nine Conference's top trio of Weston Murphy, Mike Fogg and Connor Belicic — playing their last year for the school — all scored in double figures.

Apex has only lost three home games over the last two seasons (18-3) — the only loss coming this year in the season opener against CAP-7 champ Millbrook.

"We love playing at home," Apex coach David Neal said.

With a smaller gym than most other Tri-Nine schools, a huge student section and a goal that has almost an entire other court behind it — creating a deeper backdrop than most baskets teams shoot at — the Cougars have developed quite the home-court advantage. No Tri-Nine team has been able to stay within single-digits of Apex on its court.

"I think our Cougar Crazies are great and I appreciate them coming out in full force on Senior Night, on a Tuesday night and not a Friday. I think our fans have always been great. I think our gym is smaller than almost anywhere you play and it's different -- it's a different dynamic with our second half goal the way it is. ... We won them all here in the league and I'm proud of them for doing that."

Murphy bulldozed his way inside for most of the night, totaling 21 points and adding a team-high seven rebounds. Fogg had 19 while Belicic added 12.

The Cougars were stifling on Athens, forcing flurries of turnovers. One play in the fourth quarter seemed to typify the defensive effort.

Athens point guard Hurley Cannady threw in an soft underhand inbounds pass to teammate Rahim Jenkins after a made Apex basket, thinking the Cougars would be running back on defense. Instead, Fogg charged in to pick off the pass. He needed one dribble before laying the ball in just as he was being fouled.

"I thought our defense was outstanding tonight," Neal said, crediting Fogg and fellow senior Adam Dalbo for setting the tone.

Athens (6-8 Tri-Nine) needed the win to clinch a top-five spot in the Tri-Nine Conference. The Jaguars will have two more chances at that this week, starting Wednesday at Panther Creek. The top five teams in the Tri-Nine get into the state playoffs unless a team seeded lower than fifth wins the conference tournament.

The Jags got 14 points from Hurley Cannady and 13 from Rahim Jenkins. Forwards Kwamaine Jones and Mike Estes each grabbed 10 rebounds.

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Lee County (5-10 Tri-Nine) kept its hopes alive for a top-five finish after it upset Panther Creek 73-68 on Tuesday.

The Yellow Jackets were down 14 at half and trailed by seven after the third quarter. A 28-point fourth quarter, however, pushed them over the top.

Lee has now won five of its last six conference games after a 0-10 start.

Lee will need to force a tie for fifth if it wants to go to the state playoffs. That means the Jackets must win on Friday against Fuquay-Varina and hope Athens loses both its games this week against Panther Creek and Holly Springs.

Panther Creek, meanwhile, dropped to 9-5 in the conference. The Catamounts must win out and hope Apex defeats Middle Creek on Friday to force a tie for second.

In both cases, tiebreakers for playoff seeding are determined by which, if either, team makes it to the conference tournament championship or wins head-to-head in the conference tourney. If neither of those situations happens, the teams competing for a spot will play on a neutral court the day of the tournament finals.

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After being tied 51-all heading after four quarters, Middle Creek and Fuquay-Varina played a game of field position in their overtime period. Or something like that.

Middle Creek scored all three points of overtime to prevail 54-51 on Tuesday.

Fuquay's chances of earning at least a tie for fifth are out the door. The Bengals (4-11 Tri-Nine) must win the Tri-Nine Conference Tournament to advance to the state playoffs.

The Bengals will also have to win on Friday at Lee County if it wants to be sure not to play in the 8-9 "play-in" game this Saturday.

The Mustangs, meanwhile, can clinch second place in the Tri-Nine with either a win on Friday over Apex or a Panther Creek loss.

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Green Hope and Holly Springs were scheduled to play Tuesday night, but with both schools' wrestling teams in action that same night in the dual-team state playoffs, the game was moved to Wednesday.

A loss by either team would make it hard to avoid Saturday's play-in game between the eighth and ninth seeds.