RALEIGH — Panther Creek split its first two games at the GlaxoSmithKline Holiday Invitational and found itself in position to play for third place in the Hospitality Group bracket.

In the Catamounts’ opening game against Enloe, another undefeated Wake County team, Panther Creek got out to a quick first quarter lead and never looked back, as L.J. Hepp’s team shot 60 percent from 3-point range and won easily, 61-46.

It was the second straight year the Catamounts competed in the GSK Invitational, and the experience showed. Brandon Oliver hit a 3-pointer at the end of the first quarter as time expired, as did Earnest Ross at the end of the third.

“There’s no question that being a part of this event last year prepared our group to come in and compete tonight,” Hepp said. “We knew in this game tonight we wanted to try to get the last shot in each quarter and these guys did a good job of it tonight.”

Enloe’s Melvin Tabb, who sat out the first quarter for missing a practice for a family event, was rendered ineffective. The 15th-best junior power forward, according to Scout.com, scored just four points on one-for-four shooting and had one rebound.

“He’s a good player,” senior forward Marques Oliver said. “But tonight I feel our defense overcame that.”

The Catamounts’ Ross had no such problems playing in front of the standing-room-only crowd, scoring 27 points in the victory.

Panther Creek played next on Saturday against Ravenscroft, which was coming off a 71-56 win over Apex. The Ravens were the buzz saw that cut the Catamounts down. For the second straight game, Ravenscroft shot 74.4 percent from the field, including flawless first-quarter shooting, to lead 27-18.

“They had a heck of a night. They had some great performances,” Hepp said. “If they shoot average, or just O.K., maybe we win the first quarter.”

Ross had 29 points including a three right before the half that made it 38-31, Ravenscroft. After the first two days of tournament play on Friday and Saturday, the Auburn signee had the most total points with 56.

However, Ross’ final-second three was the last one Panther Creek hit on the night. The Catamounts went ice cold after halftime, missing all 12 second-half 3-pointers and converting just five field goals.

Meanwhile, Ravenscroft hit seven-of-nine 3-pointers, including its first six. The outside shooting caused Panther Creek to scrap its original game plan and identity, which was to trap Ravenscroft guards and make them win the game instead of Kelly and Wilson.

Ravenscroft’s Luke Davis relished the opportunity and went for 20 points.

“It was real frustrating,” Brandon Oliver said. “When you get a trap, he can still get it to a shooter or get it to one of the 6-11 guys.”

The loss to Ravenscroft placed the Catamounts into the third-place game in the Hospitality Group bracket, which was played on Tuesday afternoon against the loser between Knightdale and Roswell Centennial (Ga.).

“To a degree, this tournament is to give us experience. At the end of the day, that’s the greatest value of this thing,” Hepp said. “It’s going to help us win the games we have to win; in our conference, conference tournament and eventually state tournament.”

The Cary News will have a live blog running from Panther Creek's third-place game on Tuesday at 2:20 p.m. To view previous live blogs from the Catamounts' games, click here to see the blog from the game against Enloe, and here for their game against Ravenscroft.