GATLINBURG — The Gatlinburg-Pittman boys’ basketball team was ranked No.3 in the state in the AP poll released this week for the 2009-10 season, and while it’s an honor for the Blue-and-Gold team to be thought of so highly, the Highlanders are keeping things in perspective and preparing for business as usual with two important District 3-AA clashes looming later this week.

“I’m pretty sure that’s the highest Gatlinburg-Pittman (basketball) has ever been ranked,” said Highlanders coach Raul Placeres. “It’s a testament to how hard this team has worked, and to how much time and work the kids have put into getting better in the gym on their own and with the team.

“It’s exciting, and I feel privileged to have the opportunity to coach a team like this, a team with so much talent.

“But right now, we’re just going game by game. No game is bigger than the next.”

Coaches have to preach things like that to their teams, but for any fan looking at the G-P schedule, Thursday’s home game against Union (10-6) is big, but Saturday’s home game against Fulton (11-2) is even bigger for the Highlanders (13-1).

“But to us, Thursday and Saturday are just two district games that we have to go out and win,” said Placeres.

The Highlanders cruised to an easy 73-29 Monday night win over visiting county rival The King’s Academy Lions (3-10), but Tuesday night’s road trip to county neighbor Cosby Eagles (7-3) was called off due to weather conditions.

Placeres was disappointed that Tuesday’s game was postponed, because it would have given the Highlanders one more non-district game before entering a 13-game stretch where G-P is scheduled to play 11 District 3-AA contests.

Before Monday night’s win against TKA, the Highlanders hadn’t played a game since Dec. 23, due to the recent snowy weather.

(Besides Monday), “it’s been about three weeks since we’ve played,” said Placeres. “I’m not making excuses, though, because everyone else is in the same boat right now.”

Monday night against TKA, the Highlanders sailed to a 44-point win despite some considerable rust.

G-P junior Garrett Buckner led all scorers with 20 points, but it was junior Jose “Joshy” Agosto with the hottest hand, hitting virtually every shot he took regardless of how many hands were in his face and scoring 14 points in limited court time.

G-P senior Marquise “Q” Wall was the other Highlander to score in double digits with 11 ticks. Jon McCroskey added nine, McKinley Maples eight and Morrease “Mo” Barber had six in the win, including a dramatic two-handed throw down in the second quarter.

David Kirkpatrick led TKA with 16 points and was the Lions’ lone double-digit scorer, although African transfer student Cyrille Sandjon added eight in the losing effort.

Thursday’s game against Union was rescheduled from Friday night, because Saturday’s game against Fulton is a rescheduled affair from last week. G-P didn’t want to play the district rivals on consecutive nights. Both games start at typical times, with varsity girls at 6:30 p.m. and boys to follow with a tip-off at about 8 p.m.