By Pete McEntegart, SI.com

Shared Vision

Though both play the wing, Ellington and Henderson have managed to complement each other's games rather than compete for shots and glory. "A lot of people always talk about how we have to share the spotlight," Ellington says. "We just kind of laugh at that. We know that if we both do what we have to do it's going to make us both that much better. We understand that it's not about either one of us, it's about the team."

That cohesiveness has been forged by hundreds of hours together on the court. Ellington and Henderson are also teammates all spring and summer on the same AAU team, the Playaz. When they're not playing together, they're challenging each other in endless games of one-on-one. Off the court, they are virtually inseparable. If Ellington isn't at Henderson's house, then chances are that Henderson is at Ellington's.

The friendship was forged in Ellington's first few rocky months at Episcopal, a demanding school in which the 111 graduates in the class of 2005 compiled an average SAT score of 1,310. Athletes can't hide in a separate (and typically easier) curriculum as at some schools that produce top athletes. Everyone at Episcopal is preparing for college, not just those who can sink 22-footers.

Dougherty taught both Ellington and Henderson as sophomores in geometry, allowing him to see his star players from another perspective. "They attacked math the same way they attacked basketball," says Dougherty. "There's a lot of pressure academically here with 100 percent of the graduating class going to college. Nobody likes to feel the fool. But the two of them approached the class like a competition, and were always very interested in how they did in every test. They took pride in that."

If Ellington and Henderson did their best to fit in at Episcopal, though, their presence also brought a number of changes to the program. Dougherty has seen a number of standout players during his 28 seasons as Episcopal's coach -- including Penn standout Jerome Allen, who went on to play in the NBA -- but none that received the national acclaim of this dynamic duo. At the very first day of practice last season, Wake Forest head coach Skip Prosser watched Dougherty put some 35 prospects through tryouts for 2 1/2 hours, just hoping that Ellington and Henderson would note his presence. North Carolina coach Roy Williams visited the school just days after winning the national title in April, and Duke's Mike Krzyzewski popped in a day later.

The Churchmen also upgraded their schedule far beyond the Inter-Ac. This season the school played 23 games on the road or on neutral floors against national powers from Oregon to Florida, including perennial basketball factory Oak Hill Academy of Virginia. That latter game resulted in one of the team's four defeats, but Episcopal gave Oak Hill such a fright in a 64-58 January loss that the high-octane team with seven Division I recruits actually held the ball in a stall for two full minutes in the fourth quarter. Even so, everyone associated with the Episcopal program seems to realize that these are rare times that won't likely be soon repeated.

"It's not like we're a boarding school that's going to go out and bring players in here," says Dougherty. "This is just how it worked out. Gerald has been here since second grade, and then Dame Fortune smiled on me and gave me a second great player for three years in Wayne."

When Ellington and Henderson graduate, the national-level schedule and TV games will likely go with them. Yet the school has been comfortable with the added spotlight the past two years, in part because of its confidence in the character of its two standouts.

"I can't think of two better kids to represent us," says Episcopal headmaster L. Hamilton Clark. "They're good students and good citizens. They reflect what we are about as a school, kids with good balance in their lives and who are ready to take on leadership roles."

Taking it to Tobacco Road

Next year, Ellington and Henderson will be leading their own way from opposite sides of the fiercest rivalry in college basketball. Henderson announced that he would sign with Duke last May, and Ellington committed to North Carolina a week later. As their college careers develop, expect to hear more about this pair of best friends who have chosen opposite sides of basketball's version of the Hatfields and McCoys.

"What's going to happen is pretty unique," says Telep, who is based in North Carolina. "What high school, first of all, has two guys who are both ACC players? Secondly, who has two guys going to the two best ACC programs? That's very rare."

Players from the same high school have attended the two schools at roughly the same time before, such as when Dick DeVenzio (Duke) and Denis Wuycik (UNC) from Ambridge High in Ambridge, Pa., played in the late '60s and early '70s. But those players were several years apart and not inseparable best friends like Ellington and Henderson.

The two are looking forward to the unprecedented situation, especially relishing the chance that they may guard each other and finally resolve the question as to who is better. (For the record, they say that the running tally of their endless games of one-on-one is essentially even.) Still, both insist that their friendship will remain untarnished. "Even though it's the biggest rivalry in college basketball, I think we're going to remain best of friends," says Ellington. "It's going to be more about the Tar Heels and Blue Devils than us two."

While Tobacco Road looms in their future, though, the two don't seem in any hurry to leave the present. Ellington and Henderson seem to grasp how good they've had it the past three years at Episcopal, both on and off the court. The fact that they've been able to do it together has made the experience that much sweeter. Both are thankful for Ellington's decision to choose Episcopal, and then to stick around after those rough early days.

"I can't even tell you how much he's meant to me," says Henderson. "The biggest thing is just every day in practice, us going at each other and making each other better. I don't think anyone else could have done what Wayne's done for me. And socially, he's been my best friend since he's been here. He's always got my back. You can't really measure that either."

Just as it's hard to measure the impact that Ellington and Henderson's basketball brilliance have had on Episcopal -- and that the school has had on them.