SANFORD - There was no championship trophy waiting for Clayton's girls basketball team at the end of the Chatlee Shootout at Lee County, just a hundred spot, a 3-0 week and a boatload of confidence entering the 2009 portion of the Comets' schedule.

Clayton went 3-0 in the round-robin event with wins over Hoke County, Lee County and Overhills.

"I told my girls that we won three games, so we won the tournament," said Clayton coach Marlon Lee. "We just got back into our groove of our game and that's running, running and running.

"We struggled against Holly Springs and East Wake [the Comets' final two games - both losses - before Christmas] because they slowed it down."

So Lee made a bold statement to his team after their win over Hoke County in the opening round, telling them if they got out and ran, it wouldn't surprise him if they put up 100 points one night.

Clayton did it the very next night, downing event host Lee County, 100-47, with four players finishing with a dozen or more points.

"Everybody scored and we just kept getting offense, even when we started to stretch our bench," Lee said of the victory. "Katina Mosley went past her total for points scored in the season in one night and Brittany Armstrong had a great second half after picking up three fouls in the first half."

Armstrong led Clayton with 19 points, Mosley finished with 18. Shaquira Hall had 15 as well, while Marnikka Young totaled 12.

The Comets put up 29 points in the second quarter and 33 in the third quarter, leading 81-34 entering the final stanza of play.

Clayton finished up its tournament run with a 51-44 win over Overhills.

The Comets held the Jaguars to five first-quarter points and never trailed.

T'Keyah Richardson led Clayton with 13 points.

"Overhills did a good job of slowing us down [in the final game]," Lee said. "But we handled it well, better than we did before Christmas. So that was good to see.

"Our effort was there for all three games: defensively and offensively."

The Comets (9-4) close out the first round of Greater Neuse River 4-A Conference play with a match up with rival Smithfield-Selma on Friday. (Clayton faced Knightdale on Tuesday night).

"Coming out of here with three wins, it gives us a lot of confidence," Lee said. "If you go 0-3 or 3-0 in a holiday tournament, it's not going to impact your conference race but when you can go back into your last two games of the first half of conference play on a 3-0 streak, it's much better."

Clayton's boys went 1-2 in the boys tournament in Sanford. The Comets opened with a 71-56 victory over Cary but then were walloped by East Chapel Hill in the semifinals. Host Lee County topped Clayton 42-32 in the battle for third place.

Adam Parrish had 20 points for the Comets (10-5) against Cary, while Brandon McPhatter added 16.