ORANGE PARK -Was once said by boxing legend Muhammad Ali and sometimes attribute to baseball great Dizzy Dean that 'it ain't bragging if you can back it' and when Orange Park High girls basketball coach Michael Nesmith said two weeks ago after his Raiders got beat by Ridgeview in the Clay County Cup championship game that he would walk out of the Ridgeview High gym with the girls district basketball trophy, many thought it may have been a bit braggadocio.

"I put the Clay Today article on the wall in the locker room for the whole week and made them read it just before we got on the bus to come here," said Nesmith. "I wanted them to dig down as deep as they had to to win this game. We had two weeks to think about this game."
In what could be considered one of the most hotly contested district championship basketball championships in recent history; complete with an gym shaking three pointer from Ridgeview guard Emma Rayes, a bloody lip from a dive to the floor for a loose ball from Ridgeview guard Taniya Booker and a game plan that was executed nearly without flaw by a freshman guard named Ella Crowe and bolstered by another freshman, center Trinity Dinkins, the Lady Raiders pulled out of the Ridgeview parking lot with the aforementioned trophy in Nesmith's hands after a 44-38 win that, if you didn't know better, one may have thought the win was for a state championships.
"After they beat us last week in the Clay County Cup (a girls county championship tournament; Ridgeview beat Orange Park 51-45), we knew what we had to do to beat them here," said Nesmith. "That game kind of organized us as to how today's game plan was going to be designed. The loss hurt, but we learned a lot about them and about ourselves."
For Crowe, who administered a game plan on offense challenged the perimeter of the tough Ridgeview defense led by the Blocton sisters; Narissa and Nacoya, that attempted to keep the ball out of the lane, the offensive plan was to attack the lane from one side, then find the openining when the defense shifted.
"They were very fast defensively going from side to side to keep any drives into the lane and we kept putting pressure there," said Crowe, who admitted no sleep on Friday night anticipating the game. "After the half, coach told us to look to the backside pass and Trinity was there."
Dinkins, the lead scorer for Nesmith, handled the task of finishing off the process with a simple, wide open layup most times.
"It was part of the plan to sneak over to the opposite side and just get open," said Dinkins. "Our front court kept finding me and we worked all week on just putting layups up and hitting foul shots."
For Ridgeview High coach Gussie Solomon, who was serene in her cool, calm demeanor after the game, the result came as a result of missed opportunities.
"We missed a lot of free throws and open shots that they turned the game around with," said Solomon. "We will wait for the region bracket to see if we play them again."
With Orange Park maintaining a 4-6 point lead for most of the contest, Ridgeview started to push the pace with a full court defense and quick-moving offense sets that shrunk the gap to 2-3 points in the fourth quarter; 31-28 with five minutes left in the game with Dinkins hitting another layup to 33-28 before Narissa Blocton drove for an acrobatic layup to 33-30.
Nesmith's defense was bent on double teaming the Ridgeview 1-2 push of the Blocton sisters to force the ball out of their hands, but the strategy nearly turned the tables on the Raiders when senior guard Emma Rayes knocked down a monster three pointer from the corner at 4:12 to put the score at 33-33 in what looked to be a momentum changer for the Panthers.
Crowe would find a third freshman teammate, guard Kai Longmire, for a jumper to put the Raiders back up 35-33 at 3:46.
Narissa Blocton drove in, dropped the bucket to 35-35 but Orange Park answered again with Longmire blocking a shot on Nacoya Blocton with Crowe putting in a rebound for a 37-35 Raider lead with 3:03 to go.
Nacoya Blocton hit one of two free throws at 2:13 to close the game to 37-36 before Crowe hit two frees to 39-36 with 1:37 to go.
Dinkins sunk another layup after a time out break to put the Raiders up 41-36 with Narissa Blocton to shoot two free throws on Crowe's fifth foul of the night; making both 41-38 with 42 seconds to go.
"Making those late free throws; or not making them in the game, was about a six point swing for them," said Solomon.
For Orange Park, Longmire missed two free throws to keep the Panthers viable in the last 30 seconds, but Orange Park sunk two more frees for the final 44-38 score.

Spartans boys/girls win district titles

In district 3-1A, St. Johns Country Day School's girls basketball team won their district title with a 44-42 win over Florida School of Deaf and Blind behind 26 points from guard Sophia Mejia with forward Kendall Proffitt adding 14.
"Kendall was off for most of the night, but kept feeding Sophia and she kept hitting," said St. Johns coach Tyler Miller.
St. Johns's girls team is ranked 15th in Class 1A with a 19-6 season record.
Also, in district 3-1A, St. Johns' boys team beat Christ's Church Academy 55-50 to win that district title.
The region 1-1A fifth-ranked St. Johns boys (14-11, ranked 23rd in Class 1A) will travel to 4th-ranked North Florida Educational Institute (5-13, ranked 17th in Class 1A) in Jacksonville for the region quarterfinals on Wednesday, February 12 at 7 p.m.
In the rest of the region quarterfinals for region 1-1A; No. 1 Impact Christian Academy (20-6, ranked 4th in Class 1A) will host No. 8 Meadowbrook Academy (20-6 ranked 29th in Class 1A), No. 2 Eagles' View (18-7, ranked 15th in Class 1A) will travel to No. 7 North Florida Christian (10-14) and No. 3 Christ's Church Academy (17-4, ranked 28th in Class 1A) will host No. 6 St. Johns Paul II (9-14, ranked 25th in Class 1A).