GREEN COVE SPRINGS - Clay High girls basketball coach Doug Deters remembered 14th ranked Georgia State University's NCAA tournament win over third-ranked Baylor on a 3-pointer at 2.7 seconds in 2015 as his premise for his confidence in the upcoming district 3-5A championship tournament.

"Any team can win at any time, and we are not going to stall or go four corners, but we are going to come out with our guns blazing and make things happen," said Deters, who has coached his Lady Blue Devils to a stunning 16-5 record after just four wins last year. "We are getting some three pointers at key times in games, and our defense is pretty good. We get a few extra threes in the second half, we could be in position for an upset."

For the district 3-5A lineup, Fleming Island (13-9) and Orange Park (17-6) sit as probable candidates for the one and two spots with Clay, Middleburg and Ridgeview looking like third, fourth and fifth. Ridgeview, the district runner-up last year, but with a slew of graduated senior players, is 3-14 and led by senior Narissa Blocton's 20 points per game average.

"I think we might be at fourth because we've lost a couple lately and Middleburg is playing well at the right time," Deters said. "We just had a tough win over Ridgeview, 47-43, and I think we may get them in the first round of districts. Their girl, Narissa Blocton, is a great player with like 30 points against us."

Deters' outlook seems to bank on a second win over Ridgeview then a second playoff game that will be a bonus for his young team.

"Success for us is a second playoff game and a shot at one of the top seeds," Deters said. "We will definitely give it our best punch."

Deters liked his overall 3-point shooting as a key as well as his girls tough defense and strong rebounding with forward Annaliese Hovda starting to find her spot off the three-point stripe.

"She had four threes against Ridgeview in the second half and if she gets hot with Teaghan Moses hitting hers (37 for season, with games of three and four 3-pointers four games out of the last six), we might get lucky," said Deters, noting Moses at a near 15 points per game.

Despite Deters optimism, Orange Park and Fleming Island seem destined to clash as Orange Park prepped for a clash with Bishop Kenny (19-4, ranked No. 2 in 4A, 15th in Florida) on Tuesday, Jan. 27 after an overtime loss to Tocoi Creek (61-58) and a 45-43 loss to Providence (15-5) last week. Tocoi Creek outscored Orange Park 12-9 in the four-minute overtime for the win with the Lady Raiders outscoring Tocoi in the third and fourth quarters—13-11 and 14-11. Tocoi led at halftime, 27-22. Orange Park was up 38-33 after three quarters.

Against Providence, Orange Park opened with an 18-6 first quarter but got outscored in the second half, 10-8 and 15-10. Bishop Kenny had two losses last week: 47-39 to Bolles and 48-25 to Winter Haven.

Fleming Island had a 69-31 Jan. 12 loss to Tocoi Creek that started a three-game skid for the Golden Eagles with losses to Beachside and Bartram Trail before cruiser wins against Ridgeview and Bishop Snyder. Fleming Island finishes with Nease (13-8), Sandalwood and Bolles (18-4) as preparation for districts.

Middleburg played strong in the mid-season but has two losses, 7A Creekside and 6A Mandarin with Oakleaf and Bartram Trail (11-7), finishing the Broncos' regular season.

In district 2-6A, Oakleaf coach Fred Cole got a signature win with a buzzer beater 3-point shot by freshman guard Brinkley Todd icing Ribault 59-56 on Jan. 20. The Lady Knights caught fire with back-to-back wins over ED White (67-57) and Bradford (47-42) with Mandarin, Middleburg and Leon finishing the season.

St. Johns Country Day School (12-8) is riding the 30 points per game from Kendall Proffitt who got a win over Mandarin and an 80-57 blast of St. Augustine last week after a 51-46 loss to Oakleaf on Jan. 16. Proffitt was held to 19 points against Oakleaf, but got back in spirit with 32 points against St. Augustine (16-6, 33rd in 5A) with three Spartans also scoring double figures: Sophia Mejias (16), Peyton Roberts (11) and Ashanti Williams (11). St. Johns, ranked 13th in 1A, had 10 three-pointers—six from Proffitt against St. Augustine.

Keystone Heights, 9-8, finishes with West Nassau, Stanton, Hope Christian and Bell.