ORANGE PARK - Orange Park High sophomore guard Ella Crowe, with a game high 25 points, stamped out her scoring prowess with three 3-pointers as critical points of the Lady Raiders' 51-34 region quarterfinal playoff win over Fleming Island Friday night in the Raiderdome. Orange Park advances to the region semifinal on Friday, Feb. 20 at Ponte Vedra.

"Those 3-pointers when she hit them were daggers for us that one by one took the steam out of Fleming Island's momentum for a playoff win over us," said Orange Park girls basketball coach Mike Nesmith, who was eliminated last year in the region quarterfinal by Beachside High to thwart the district title his Raiders won over Ridgeview. "One of our goals was to get a few more games in February."

In other region girls basketball action, St. Johns Country Day School, a 65-20 winner over the Florida School for the Deaf behind 37 points from top scorer Kendall Proffitt, will travel Friday, Feb. 20, to No. 2 North Florida Educational Institute in that region semifinal. Proffitt is top ranked statewide in 3-pointers made, second ranked in Florida for scoring average (33.1) and ninth ranked in the nation in scoring.

Oakleaf, the district 2-6A champion, ended their season with a 62-37 region quarterfinal loss to No. 1 seed Tocoi Creek. Oakleaf finishes at 16-12 with a 10-game win streak ended at Tocoi Creek. NFEI, 14-14, is ranked sixth in Class 1A with St. Johns 16-8, ranked 10th.

Nesmith noted that Ponte Vedra defeated Orange Park in the Raiders' second game of the season by 10 points. Ponte Vedra is ranked fourth in Class 5A with Washington second and Orange Park seventh. All three have solid strength of schedule ratings near the 13-point mark (20 being very tough schedules).

"You know what I do and we will bring a different team to Ponte Vedra on Saturday then what they saw in November," Nesmith said.

Ponte Vedra outscored Orange Park 22-11 in the third quarter in that 64-54 Sharks win.

At Orange Park High, with Fleming Island attempting to upend Nesmith's history of not losing to a team twice in one season, a game opening three pointer from Gianna Crawford and a bucket from Angel Pierce got a quick 5-0 Fleming Island opening salvo, a 3-pointer from Raider guard Skylar Wilson tied the score at 5-5 en route to a 7-0 run by Orange Park.

"We just beat them for the district title seven days ago and they were coming here for a second shot," Nesmith said. "I told them to be prepared that they were going to give us everything they got."

Crowe lofted the three to the 12th points as her first shot across the bow. Wilson ended with 11 points for the game in just her third game with double figures.

"We have plenty of players that can score the points when the defense gives them the opportunity," Nesmith said. "I had to burn a timeout early to get them to calm down. Once we got the engine going, we were good."

Fleming Island battled back to score the game 16-12 off a Pierce layup with a foul shot, but Crowe again lofted a rainbow from the corner that stymied the Fleming Island surge.

The half ended at 29-17 with Crowe landing a third three with a minute left in the half.

"Those are killers, like a dunk," Nesmith said.

Fleming Island again tried to roll back with Seven Gourdet converting free balls under the basket to get the Golden Eagles as close as 30-27 with two minutes in the third. Raider center Trinity Dinkins returned fire with two strong balls under the backboard matching Gourdet's tough efforts as the third quarter ended at 36-29 with Amira Martin hitting a buzzer turnaround.

In the fourth, Crowe missed twice on threes, but Bella Brown took the shot at six minutes to put Orange Park up 39-30.

"Bella hits that one, we go up from six to nine because they weren't expecting that," Nesmith said. "We have shooters. I tell them all the time, no one has to be a superstar, but everyone has to do their job."

Nesmith chose to slow down the pace to end the game forcing Fleming Island into intentional fouls.

"At that point, I want $1 passes, not $100 passes," Nesmith said. "We don't need fancy passes under the basket that gets turnovers or fouls. Don't let them sneak up with lazy passes turning into scores."