JACKSONVILLE – Orange Park High guard Kadin Elmore is the smallest guy on the court when most Raiders basketball games start, but his well-timed three-point bombs fueled explosive surges for the Raiders basketball team as they won a second consecutive district 4-6A title with a 63-48 win over Westside Feb. 17 at Wolfson High School.

“We have a couple of guys that can be that guy,” said Elmore, speaking about backcourt mates Ty McBride, top scorer with 21 points, and John Abate. “I just had the hot hand tonight and they were able to feed me the ball.”

Orange Park earned its ticket to the final with an overwhelming 53-15 semi-final win over Ridgeview High on Feb. 14 before taking two days off and having to reload for Westside. Ridgeview beat Baker County to get to the semi-final and Westside defeated Wolfson.

Orange Park, now 18-9, will host Ribault (7-15) on Thurs., Feb. 22 in the region quarterfinal. Ribault lost 56-47 to Bishop Kenny in the district 3-6A final. Orange Park beat Ribault 69-52 on Jan. 9.

Against Ridgeview, Orange Park blitzed to a 31-2 halftime lead off a scrambling defense and breakaway layups with Elmore setting the tone with two three-pointers as the first six points for the Raiders.

Up 19-0 after the first quarter, Orange Park upped the ante to the halftime break with three three-pointers from Abate.

Against Westside, with three players hovering above six foot, three inches, Orange Park ramped up the pace a notch to out-run and out-gun the Wolverines, but both teams seemed to content to dance around with the ball rather than shoot with the quarter ending at 15-11 for Orange Park. Abate hit one three-pointer, but Westside’s inside game kept the Wolverines within striking distance.

“We are always undersized no matter who we play,” said Orange Park Head Coach Derek Kurnitsky. “With Davontae Crutch out there, it’s a little more even, but it’s still three on one underneath. We have to have ball movement and good shooting. D’Marre Craddock, just a freshman at 6’-4”, has come on strong to help out underneath.”

Elmore got hot as the second quarter started with three free throws off a battered three point attempt, then a second three point attempt from St. Johns County (near halfcourt, actually) that froze the Westside defense.

From there, guard Dialo Bryant found McBride off the infamous “Duck-n-Chuck” offense pattern for a third three-point play in less than a minute and a 9-0 scoring swing.

“It’s like a body punch when we duck into the paint, if it’s open, we go for the layup, if not, someone is open outside and we chuck it out and get the long shot,” said Abate. “Our offense is geared off the outside shot coming and the duck sucks in the defense.”

The surge pushed the Raiders up 26-11despite a smothering blocked shot on Crutch from Westside’s 6’-5” center Diamontaye James.

“I tried to force my inside game on that one,” said Crutch. “Coach tells us to be patient and find open players.”

Westside pushed a halfcourt trap defense on to the Raider backcourt and the onrush force untimely turnovers that pulled the Wolverines to 30-20 with two minutes left in the half.

Orange Park was able to get out of the half safely with Crutch getting a charge called against James and McBride locking up Westside guard Jordan Jackson for a five-second violation to end the half.

“I think it was a show of force for us that the defense ended the half,” said McBride. “If we were not going to get a shooting situation, we did not want them to hit a couple of baskets before the half and get some momentum.”

In the third, Abate again opened the stanza with a three-pointer from the deep right corner off a feed from Elmore on a drive (the Duck and Chuck). Both teams traded baskets to end the third still close, 47-36.

Westside caught the Raiders in a lull as the fourth started and closed the gap to 49-43 with 6:06 to go and Raider Nation biting their fingernails before McBride found Crutch for a layup and Elmore getting a “Duck” from Bryant for a three-pointer at 4:35 to go pushing the lead to 58-45.

“I think that last one took their wind,” said Kurnitsky. “It’s tough to keep coming back on us if we are hitting the threes.”