The Blue Ridge Athletic Conference district tournament began on February 19th with four Claiborne County basketball teams participating. The Claiborne Lady Bulldogs and the Cumberland Gap Lady Panthers both competed during the opening night with the Lady Panthers defeating Grainger County and the Lady Bulldogs falling to the Black Nights of Chuckey-Doak in a heated battle. Also competing on the first night of action was the Cumberland Gap boys also playing the Grizzlies of Grainger county. The Panthers defeated the Grizzlies to move on to the semi-final round. On Saturday's semi-final matchup the Lady Panthers would meet the tournament's number one girls seed in the Greeneville Lady Green Devils. The Lady Panthers tried to stay with the great Greeneville team but fell short in the end. The loss moved the Lady Panthers into the consolation game on Monday to battle for third place. The number one seeded Claiborne Bulldogs then faced off with Chuckey-Doak who defeated Greeneville to move into the semi-final contest with the Bulldogs. The Bulldogs had little problems with a tired Chuckey-Doak team and cruised into the Championship round on Tuesday the 23rd. The Cumberland Gap boy's contest was the most exciting game thus far in the tournament. It took two overtimes for the Panthers to defeat South Greene by one point to move on to the Championship round to face off with the county-rival Claiborne Bulldogs. Twice the rivals met during the regular season but twice just isn't enough. The two will meet again during the championship game just as the new edition of the Claiborne Progress is being loaded on the van for distribution late Tuesday night. The contest is shaping up to be one of the biggest in the history of the two schools if not the biggest ever meeting. When Claiborne County basketball fans wake up on Wednesday they will know who the 2009-10 district champions are but will also take pride in knowing that two of the best East Tennessee programs reside here in