CARY — It was the day before Friday's senior night game with Athens Drive, and Panther Creek was in the gym practicing as usual, but was something missing.

No plays were rehearsed, no shooting drills completed and very little, if any balls were going through the hoop as Panther Creek coach L.J. Hepp drilled his team on nothing but defense for an entire practice.

The Catamounts were coming off their first conference loss of the year to Apex, in which they gave up 72 points — 24 points more than their average — prompting the offensive-less practice on Thursday.

The focus on the defensive end paid off, as Panther Creek stifled the Jaguars to win 50-30 and in doing so, reached the 20-win mark for the second consecutive year.

"To give up just 30 [points] is huge. That's why this group has earned 20 victories is they've committed to defending," Hepp said. "We're happy to get back to that."

It seemed as though every Panther Creek (20-2, 11-1 Tri-Eight) player was relishing not only the program's first senior night, but also the chance to bounce back from their loss to Apex.

Earnest Ross, one of the team's nine seniors, scored at will and hit the boards with ferocity. He posted game-highs of 25 points and 13 rebounds.

"The intensity was very high, the crowd was big today — almost as big as it was for Middle Creek," Ross said. "I was very determined. I'm a competitive player and if we lose I like to come back strong and that's how I feel we came back."

Jaguars' leading scorer Josh Davis attempted just one first-half field goal with Panther Creek's triangle-and-two defense and foul trouble working against him. He accounted for one-fourth of his team's scoring in the first half as Athens found themselves down 28-8 after two quarters.

Davis, who averages 24 points per game, finished with 11.

"Our defense creates our offense and that's what's gotten us to where we are today," Ross said. "That's how I feel we won the game was our defense."

Quentin Edmundson, the second leading scorer for the Jaguars, had just two points on 1-of-7 shooting after leaving the game in the third quarter with an apparent shoulder injury.

At one point during the third, Athens had made just 6-of-41 field goal attempts. The Jags (20-3, 10-3) finished the game shooting 24 percent from the floor, 11 percent from three and scored as many fourth-quarter points (15) as they had all game.

"Overall, [Panther Creek] was awesome tonight," Athens coach Robert Clemons said. "Defensively, they made us hesitant and they took the aggressiveness away from us."

It's a night Clemons said his team would need to forget quickly in order to prepare for Middle Creek on Tuesday.

"I told our kids, I haven't seen a bad 20-3 team. Tonight it wasn't our night and [Panther Creek] was the better team, there's no doubt about it," Clemons said. "We're not going to look at this game tape and move on and get ready for Middle Creek."

Games against Apex and Ravenscroft aside, Panther Creek has been able to shut down almost every opposing team and star player on its schedule. The Catamounts will need to defeat Cary and Middle Creek this week to win the Tri-Eight regular season title outright.

Athens can still finish second in the final Tri-Eight standings with wins over Middle Creek and Green Hope next week.