Wow. All I can say is, wow! What a game on Friday night, and what an atmosphere at Middle Creek High School.

I had a gut feeling all day today that Middle Creek was going to pull this one off, but when they got down by 15 in the second quarter, that feeling quickly changed.

Now, I'm back on the bandwagon. Middle Creek is the team to beat.

We can stop talking about how Middle Creek's defense is their weakness. They proved on Friday night that, if they play as well as they're capable of playing, they don't really have a true weakness. Again, if they play as well as they're capable of playing.

You hear the media talk about college teams like Memphis and how they cannot make their free throws. Many people think this is going to come back to bite Memphis in the NCAA Tournament. Middle Creek doesn't have that problem. Not only did they make 22 of 26 from the stripe on Friday night, they hit 17 of 18 in the final quarter! Making free throws down the stretch in a close game will win it for you, and Middle Creek proved that on Friday night.

The Mustangs were unusually cold from behind the arc, especially in the first half, but what a shot from Garrius Adams going into the break. That sparked a fire for Middle Creek.

Middle Creek faced the press all night long, too. Did that hurt them? Not at all. The Mustangs only had 13 turnovers the entire game.

As good as Middle Creek played in the second half, and as many big plays players like Adams and Tom Tanklewicz made, the real spark may have come earlier in the week.

The Mustangs fell to Panther Creek one week ago in the Tri-Eight Championship game. The Catamounts are the only team to have beaten Middle Creek this season, and they did it twice.

Panther Creek is no longer in the playoffs, but the lessons learned from those losses linger.

"We thought we kind of lost our composure in that game," Kushner told WRAL after their win over New Hanover. "We were kind of pointing fingers for the first time all year after that."

The finger pointing stopped. On Monday, the players gathered with one another and had a player meeting. No coaches were invited.

According to Kip Kelley, they didn't even talk about basketball.

"We knew that these playoffs were not about X's and O's," Kelley said, "From here on out, it's going to be about us believing in each other, our effort on the court."

What did they talk about?

"We actually went around, we hardly talked about basketball, we talked about what individually motivates [us], and that could be from your grandma to a close friend dying, and it was nothing about basketball. That way we got to know each other more, we got to inspire each other."

"We know we've got three games left," Kelley said.

They may have three more wins.