FLEMING ISLAND - In the chock full-house of the Fleming Island Eagles Nest, the Golden Eagles ripped the lid off a tall can of high-intensity Friday night to put the brakes on a three-game losing streak. Led by six-foot, five-inch freshman Carson Crawford who notched a double-double with 21 points, and 14 boards on the night, the Golden Eagles rocked the visiting Clay Blue Devils with their ferocious run and jump pressure, 79-70.

“That’s the way we’ve been playing all year,” said Golden Eagle Head Coach Traavis Chandler. “We always want to get far ahead really fast and early. I’m glad we had a quick start. The more we play that, the more we get better at it. I just want to have everything ready by the time we get to the district tournament.”
From the first throw-in, Fleming Island showed a glued-tight man-to-man defense to inhibit the Clay Blue Devils from organizing. Being first on the board and first to draw a foul, the Golden Eagles pushed the Blue Devils on every front.
“We knew their style and we went over it as they try to speed you up,” said Clay Head Coach Jared Moses. “We talked about not allowing that to happen. I felt like in moments it did speed us up and it forces you into some bad decisions, which is what that whole pressure is about.”
Clay made some first-half errors like passes out of bounds, which turned the ball over and allowed the Golden Eagles a chance to drain more baskets. The Golden Eagle defensive shutdown of the lane was frustrating the Blue Devils.
It wasn’t only defensive pressure. Fleming Island was flying all over the court. In the first half, the court sprints never stopped. Just as the Blue Devils went on a run and knocked the score closer 26-19 with 5:00 to play until half, it only fueled the Golden Eagles to turn the wick up.
At the half break, the Golden Eagles went to the locker room up 40-29 with George Hamm already posting nine of his 18 points, and Crawford notching a first-half 12.
In the locker room, Clay did not sit around as they came out on fire in the third quarter.
With 3:40 to play in the quarter, Clay had the deficit down to seven, 47-40. Clay’s Ayden Blackwood had six points in the third on his way to 13 points. Alexander Brown also picked up six in the third on his way to a team-high 21 points. Both teams logged 16 third-quarter points keeping the Golden Eagles ahead 56-45 as they moved on to the final quarter of play.
The Blue Devil run was quickly cooled when Trace Burney banged a fourth-quarter three-pointer to set the nest on fire. After a nearly foul-free third quarter, the Blue Devil intensity drew fouls and handed the Golden Eagles six more points as Fleming Island missed only a single foul shot attempt in the fourth. Even with Clay outplaying Fleming Island in the fourth quarter, 25-23, the built-up first-half lead was just too much for the Blue Devils to overcome 79-70. Clay is moving to 8-7 on the season with six more games left as the Tocoi Creek Toros are up next.
Fleming Island moved to 10-10 with only five more regular season games remaining as they head over to Bolles to take on the Bulldogs.