PONTE VEDRA - Topped by a six blocked shots performance by center Cameron Coachman, the Oakleaf High boys basketball team survived a fourth quarter surge by Ponte Vedra to beat the Sharks 48-47 in the district 3-6A championships held Friday in front of a packed Ponte Vedra High gym.

“The way the guys were selling out on loose balls on the floor is the heart of this defense,” said Oakleaf coach Jason Price. “Their guy; like 20 points and 17 free throws, put that team in his back and we had to counter. Defense wins championships, holy smokes, that last sequence was crazy.”

Oakleaf, now 23-1, will advance into the region 1-6A playoffs as a top seed and will likely host a first round game on February 16.

Against Ponte Vedra, 19-6, Oakleaf had slight leads throughout the contest, but not enough to be comfortable behind the efforts of the Sharks point guard Nathan Bunkosky, who scored 18 points as the lone double digit scorer for Ponte Vedra.

“He put the team on his back and made big plays throughout the night; 20 points and eight free throws, to keep the game close enough,” said Price “At the end, it was the inbounds pass attempt to him that sealed the game.”

For Oakleaf, guard Aaron Rivers pumped in 15 points for the Knights with Sean Jones adding 13 and Coachman adding 10. Coachman’s six blocks put him at a new school record 116 blocks for one season. Up 44-34 late in the fourth quarter; 6:37 to go, the Knights defense wilted a bit and allowed Bunkosky to bring the game to a one point deficit with a set of three-pointers that seemed to drain the Knights’ defensive effort.

With a seventh team foul on guard Aaron Rivers, Ponte Vedra put themselves in free throw shooting position with the score now at 46-41.

At 5:37, an offensive foul on Coachman gave Ponte Vedra another possession, but the Oakleaf defense held momentarily until 4:35 with a stretch zone not allowing Ponte Vedra to penetrate the lane.

Oakleaf then got called for a 10-second violation on their next possession to give Ponte Vedra another possession with guard Sam Ritchie driving and floating a basket over Coachman to bring the score to 46-43.

“Coach kept telling us on the timeouts to just hold our positions and keep playing defense,” said senior forward Dylan Lewis. “We had no doubt we would hold.”

Two missed free throws by Oakleaf senior forward Dallas Skinner ratcheted up the game tension level as Ponte Vedra’s Sharks’ fans were smelling blood in the water.

With 2:56 to go, 46-43, Ponte Vedra center Ben Ritchie tried to back in against Coachman only to have his shot rejected, but Bunkosky got the loose ball and drove to make the game a one-pointer, 46-45.

Ritchie got stuck with an offensive foul on a baseline drive to give Oakleaf position with 1:47. After a skirmish under the Ponte Vedra basket, Lewis answered with a blocked shot of his own on Ritchie to ignite the Oakleaf defense.

Back on the court at 1:02 after a timeout, Ponte Vedra made its first major error with a misdirected inbound pass that flew out of bounds to give Oakleaf possession.

After an Oakleaf timeout with one minute to go, Lewis and guard Sean Jones kept testing the interior of the Sharks defense before Jones broke through on a layup to 48-45 with 20 seconds to go.

Ponte Vedra broke in to 48-47 with a Bunkosky drive with 17 seconds to go.

Oakleaf had a shot to up their slim edge, but could not score with Lewis missing a free throw with nine seconds to go.

Another frenzy on a loose ball on the court, put Rivers face down on the court with an apparent injury. Rivers got up and eventually jogged up and down the court to remain in the game.

“I didn’t draw up a single thing up in the final possessions and just told them that they were going to run and we had to play the defense like champion defense that we had,” said Price.

Now, with 1.8 seconds on the clock and Oakleaf dispersing from a final timeout, officials upped the clock to 2.3 seconds to restart the game amidst a bewildered Price.

On the Ponte Vedra throw-in from midcourt, Lewis and Jones converged on Bunkosky to force a deflection upward as Skinner slid in to capture the loose ball to end the game.

“They kept coming and they kept fighting,” said Price. “Think about the defensive possessions and the bodies they are throwing on the floor; life and limb, to win the game. They could have folded at any time, but our guys buckled down over the season.”