FUQUAY-VARINA — It wasn’t pleasant and it wasn’t pretty, but Panther Creek’s 40-36 win at Fuquay-Varina on Dec. 18 could have been just what the Catamounts needed to begin the Tri-Eight schedule.

The Bengals (2-6, 0-1) used a slow and deliberate offense and multiple defenses to slow Panther Creek and hold standout junior Earnest Ross to just 14 points, well below his season average of 23.7 per game.

Panther Creek coach L.J. Hepp knows he should get used to junk defenses and stall tactics as opponents look for ways to slow Ross and company.

“Different teams are going to try to find different ways to stop us,” Hepp said. “Fuquay, you’ve got to give them a ton of credit because they did a terrific job defensively tonight.” Hepp said grinding out an ugly win on the road was good preparation for their next contest, at Green Hope last Friday (results were not available at press time).

“We know he’s going to try to take Earnest away, and we’ve got to try to learn to play when that happens,” Hepp said of facing Green Hope coach Mickey Bissette and the experienced Falcons. “The thing about Friday night, because the schools are only a mile apart, the energy in the building is going to some degree take us as coaches out of it, because it will be hard to hear.”

Tuesday night was just the second frustrating night this season for Ross. The last time he scored as few as 14 points, Broughton outlasted Panther Creek 44-42 on Nov 23. Tuesday night, though, the Catamounts ground out a victory to improve to 8-1 overall, 1-0 in the Tri-Eight.

“It actually feels wonderful,” Ross said of the ugly win at Fuquay. “Because we know how it feels to blow teams out and we know how it feels to be in crunch time games. We worked our way through the game and we came out with a ‘W.’ That’s all that matters.”

Panther Creek will get another shot at Broughton in the opening round of the four-team tournament at the GlaxoSmithKline Holiday Invitational Dec 27.

Last winter, the Catamounts attended the annual holiday tournament as spectators. This year they play in the four-team bracket with Broughton, Northern Durham and Tri-Eight rival Green Hope. Hepp said Panther Creek has already accepted an invitation to participate in the eight-team national bracket in 2008.

“I remember being a middle school kid and seeing Jerry Stackhouse there,” Hepp said of the 36-year-old tournament. “It’s kind of a little carrot that I held over them. I said, ‘Look, you guys keep working, I’ll do everything I can to get us in there.’”

Invitations to top tournaments like the GSK are one of the benefits that come with having a Division I recruiting target like Ross. SCOUT.COM has Ross rated among the top shooting guards in the class of 2009. He already has a scholarship offer from UNC-Wilmington and is getting recruiting attention from several ACC schools. Senior guard Mike Hood said he and his teammates don’t mind all the attention that the 6-5 Ross receives.

“That’s a good blessing,” he said. “It takes some of the pressure off of us. He creates for us. He gets us shots. It’s great.”

Hepp said he couldn’t be happier with the chemistry on his team, and having a standout like Ross has only helped and not hindered in that regard.

“The things that he does, you want your best player to do, in terms of being highly competitive in games and practice and playing with an incredible amount of energy,” Hepp said of Ross. “He listens well. I think that having a guy like him buy in is huge for the rest of the team.”