Students and players from both Panther Creek and Apex will remember the last matchup between the two schools for very different reasons. For Panther Creek, the memory stems from Senior Nubian Spann’s backboard-shattering alley-oop dunk that spread like wildfire through mainstream media, even being recognized by ESPN’s flagship program Sportscenter as the number one play in its iconic “Top 10 plays”. Apex on the other hand, will remember how it not only overcame the six-point deficit it was faced with when the game resumed, but how it demolished Panther Creek en route to a 74-61 win. The win gave Apex a half-game lead over the Catamounts in the conference race, due to its head-to-head tiebreaker over the Catamounts. Now, with nearly a month of games against lesser opponents, the two titans of SWAC basketball will clash again this Friday.

Panther Creek has a much better overall record of 17-3 than that of Apex, who is 13-7. However, neither team’s overall record matters in the conference race, only their 9-1 conference records; Apex lost their first conference game of the season to Middle Creek on January 24th, opening the door for Panther Creek to win the conference title with a win over Apex. Now only Apex or Panther Creek can win the conference title; all other teams have been mathematically eliminated. Both teams have relatively easy schedules after they face off on Friday, therefore the matchup between the two is likely a conference championship-type game.

The heated rivalry between the Catamounts and the Cougars has been building since conference play opened last season. The two teams split their two matchups last season. In their first matchup, Panther Creek earned an overtime win at home against the Cougars. Apex responded in the late-season game, however, as point guard TJ Wells’ twenty-one points and eighteen assists lifted the Cougars to a home victory of their own. Then in January, Nubian Spann’s dunk put the game in the national spotlight, creating a tornado of hype before the continuation of the matchup, which Apex responded to in full throttle. However, as back and forth as this game has been, and identical conference records mean that Friday’s matchup is a whole new ball game. Nothing else – not Apex’s TJ Evans’ conference player of the year title, not Nubian Spann’s dunk, not even Apex’s homecourt advantage – matters when Apex and Panther Creek face off again in what is sure to be another thrilling chapter in the rivalry between the two schools.

The game has no lack of star power. For the Catamounts, point guard Juan Munoz leads the team in scoring with 15.5 points per game. Munoz has eclipsed twenty-points in six different games this season. The sophomore also averages a steady 3.5 assists per game. But how does the Catamount point guard fare against Apex? He managed 26 points in the last installment of the Apex-Panther Creek rivalry.  Accompanying Munoz in the backcourt is senior shooting guard Malachi Paige. Paige is second in scoring on the team with 11.6 points per game. Alongside Munoz and Paige is senior shooting guard Gaqwez Hudson, who averages 11.1 points per game. Anchoring the Catamount lineup is senior forward Nubian Spann and his team-best 4.2 rebounds per game. Apex also has an impressive lineup themselves. Shooting guard TJ Evans is the defending conference player of the year and brings his conference-best 18.6 points per game. Joining Evans is former first team all-conference point guard TJ Wells and forward Ian Boyd. Boyd can be as explosive a scorer as Evans; he scored thirty-eight points in Apex’s win over Holly Springs. However, there are more factors that go into a game than just star power.

Given their 17-3 overall record and 9-1 conference record, Panther Creek is as consistent as they come. Apex, on the other hand, holds a 13-7 overall record, which can be credited to a slow start in non-conference play. However, Apex recently unexpectedly lost their matchup against Middle Creek. This loss gives Panther Creek the opportunity to not need tiebreakers to win the conference title, but rather to win the conference title outright. Apex’s loss confirms for many that Apex tends to play their best in big games, which all but guarantees a great game on Friday, and overlooks smaller games that most people would write off as an automatic win for the Cougars. This may lead some to think that a Panther Creek loss on Friday may not guarantee a conference title for Apex if they lose some of the ‘automatic wins’ remaining on their schedule.

Regardless of consistency, fans of both sides are sure to be in for a treat when the conference leaders face off on Friday to leave it all on the court.  Tensions will be high, as will the stakes from the moment the referee tosses the ball into the air. When the final buzzer sounds, one team will leave feeling very confident about their position in the conference: first.