OAKLEAF - After a thunderous double overtime loss to Fleming Island just a week ago, a 69-63 game called a heavyweight championship fight by Fleming Island head coach Traavis Changler, Oakleaf was prepared to host the Golden Eagles a week later with a bit of revenge in mind.

"We had two games after that Fleming Island game; wins against Atlantic Coast and Bartram Trail, both solid programs and thought the second Fleming Island game was going to be another dogfight," said Oakleaf coach Jason Price. "With our schedule, we knew a game like this might happen. We have to learn to bring our A-Game every single night and you know it is very hard to play your A-Game every single night. With a strength of schedule like ours, a win, win double is a huge boost for the season, but very difficult to achieve."
Unfortunately, the game finished as an 84-66 blowout by Fleming Island in a rare display of basketball dominance by just one of the two teams in the traditional county rivalry.
"We lost a tough one to University Christian last week; Nate Lowery was sick and we just showed up and tried to put out a team effort," said Chandler. "As for the playoffs coming, I'd like to see this team show up at that time. We played really well together."
With both teams kind of flying around with defense and missed layups, the five minute mark of the first quarter saw just a 5-2 Oakleaf lead until until Oakleaf guard Jelani Wright hit his first three pointer to 7-2.
Oakleaf added a Dan Huffman layup to 9-4 as Oakleaf looked about two steps faster than Fleming Island.
Nate Lowery, though, hit the first of his four three pointers to reset the Fleming Island attack to close the game to 9-7 still Oakleaf with three minutes in the first quarter.
"When we hit threes, we score points," said Chandler.
Fleming Island center Carson Crawford, who had 27 points in game one, but just 17 in game two, hit a finger roll to put Fleming Island ahead 11-9 with Crawford slamming dunking a missed jumper to 13-11 with a minute left as both teams were relentless in chasing down loose balls. Fleming Island seemingly won the track meet with a 20-13 first quarter lead.
Fleming Island would almost keep a 10-plus gap to halftime before Wright nailed a three pointer just before the buzzer to a 42-33 score.
Fleming Island kept the pace to a 58-43 fourth quarter start where Chandler started emptying his bench to the finish.
Oakleaf, just 24 hours later, had to host an 11-2 Bradford County High team that was bringing just as much speed and action as well as some formidable height players in the paint, but Price saw a different reaction as the Knights rolled to a 72-54 blowout win.
"High school basket, you got to be ready to play," said Price, after watching the Oakleaf girls team dismantle the also 11-2 Bradford girls team prior to the boys game on the Saturday basketball fest at Oakleaf. "The last time Bradford was here, we beat them by nine, then they won nine in a row and the state championship. It was a solid test for us to see how we would react after Fleming Island last night."
Price was confident that his district lineup; Mandarin, Fletcher, Nease, brings a similar tough game attack and this schedule gets no easier.
"We were disappointed in last night's Fleming Island game, but it happens and you have to respond and have a short memory," said Price. "Two good teams, good competition and you can't play average or okay, a game like this happens. Fleming Island beat Andrew Jackson in a close one in the Fortegra tournament, then Jackson came to Fleming Island and ran the floor on them."
Price noted that senior guard Tyler Owens was 19 assists away from a school record held by Sean Jones for nearly 10 years while Jelani Wright broke Jonathan Bryant's career three pointer record against Fleming Island in just two years and is on path to challenge the record of David Compiere for the all time scoring record and the single season record.

Around The County

Orange Park improved to 9-11 after a string of four losses in five games; to Columbia, Oakleaf, Buchholz and Westside before righting the ship with an overtime win over Flagler Palm Coast with a buzzer beater from Dylan Larsen, then a 67-53 in over Trinity Catholic at Forrest High's MLK Tourney on Saturday.
The Raiders, 40th in 5A, have a three game lineup of Bartram Trail, St. Augustine (14-3, 7th in 5A) and a second game with Oakleaf before finishing with Bishop Snyder.
At Middleburg, 7-10, the Broncos have snuck in two wins int he past five games; West Nassau and Crescent City with road games to Fort White and Fernandina Beach this week and a home return against Clay on Friday, January 24. Clay is 3-12. Clay snapped a five game losing streak with a 51-42 win over Baker County on January 16 with Ridgeview, now 5-14, visiting Tuesday, January 21.
Keystone Heights is at 2-14 with Baldwin stealing a tough 49-48 win last week.
St. Johns Country Day School is at 9-10 with four wins in last five games; two wins last week against Harvest Community and First Coast Christian. Freshman Camden Cooper leads the Spartans at 17.4 points per game with Erik Williams top rebounder at 7.8 grabs per game.