FLEMING ISLAND - Fleming Island boys basketball started the week Monday with a fast-moving win over Oakleaf, 75-54, that put the Golden Eagles at the top of their roller coaster season.

"We have a lot of new faces and different skill sets out there and we are going to have to slowly mold ourselves together as one unit," said Fleming Island Coach Traavis Chandler, after the Eagles beat Class 6A Final Four finisher Tocoi Creek 60-45, last week on Dec. 2.

Tocoi Creek finished at 27-4 last year with a state semifinal loss to eventual state runner-up Orlando Evans.

"We were good in all phases of the game: rebounding, shooting and passing," said Chandler, noting that undefeated Andrew Jackson (7-0, 3A Final Four) is just another tough game on the Eagles' game gauntlet with Ribault (5-2, 4A Final Four) and Columbia to follow. "We are still working on the right combination of players and personalities to be more consistent."

The Tocoi Creek win came about a week after a somewhat surprising 60-45 loss to 6A-Lake Howell with Lake Howell shutting down the Eagle offense to just three fourth quarter points. Lake Howell knocked Oakleaf out of the Class 6A region playoffs then lost to Tocoi Creek in the region final.

The Golden Eagle ride has been a roller coaster kind of season with a mix of strong wins at a fast-moving pace. But there has also been some hiccups along the way with Lake Howell a blowout of sorts and when, on Saturday, Dec. 6, the Villages Charter stole a 58-56 game at Oak Ridge High that came by way of a last second shooting and free throws.

In the first half of the Villages game, Fleming Island had to answer an 18-9 first quarter gap with their own 19-8 second quarter to get halftime up just 28-26.
Fleming Island led 56-53 back-to-back jumpers to fall behind 57-56 with a lone free throw the final tally.

Against Oakleaf on Monday, Fleming Island rifled to a 24-12 first quarter lead with a 10-0 opening salvo with back-to-back threes from Ryan Turner and Carson Crawford before Oakleaf scored at 10-2 off a Daylen Watson layup.

Oakleaf surged to get as close at 29-20 with Tre Pierce landing a three and guard Jerry Compere nailing a layup with a free throw. An acrobatic up and under reverse layup by Joseph Johnson punctuated the Eagles' push under the boards to go up 42-24 at the half.

Oakleaf looked to catch Fleming Island sleepy in the third period with a three steal three bucket blast that got the score to 56-36, but Fleming Island kept the 20-point gap to the fourth quarter, 62-42, with Griffin Schulz shredding a three at the buzzer.

Oakleaf, 4-2, ended a three-game win streak with the Fleming Island loss and hosted St. Augustine on Dec. 10. Orange Park fell to 4-1 with a 52-49 loss to Ribault that got wins over Westside and Middleburg. Orange Park beat Bishop Snyder 70-45 on Monday to go to 5-1.

Middleburg, 1-5, got their first win with a 56-47 win over Clay before the Orange Park loss. Ridgeview, 3-5, fell twice after a win over Middleburg with losses to Menendez and Bishop Snyder.