OAKLEAF - With a tortuous schedule laid out for his Oakleaf High girls basketball team, head coach Fred Cole was tentatively smiling after his rock 'em, sock 'em attack took out a 4-1 Fleming Island High team, then fell to a now 6-1 Ponte Vedra team last Saturday.

"We never like a loss, but today was a good game for us," said Cole, after his Lady Knights took the hot three-point shooting of Ponte Vedra to task with an eventual 53-43 loss last Saturday afternoon at Oakleaf. "We are moving so fast that sometimes we get the steal and throw a bad pass to get down court. We will be honing in on making less mistakes like that as we go."

The top game of the season thus far, with an earlier season loss to Orange Park in November (57-54 in a fourth quarter thriller) and an upset of sorts over Fleming Island last Thursday, the Knights, led by freshman guard Brinkley Todd on the edges, simply could not match the three point shooting of Ponte Vedra's sophomore ace Jocelyn Hoffman, who missed her first three threes in the first quarter, hit one in the second, then got hot with three in the first eight minutes of the third quarter, giving Ponte Vedra their eventual winning gap.

"You just can't let a shooter like that get hot," Cole said. "We tried to keep someone in front of her, but they are very good at picks and posts to get her free."

Ponte Vedra shot from a 27-17 lead after halftime to an explosive 36-19 lead to the three-minute mark of the third period with Hoffman nailing a final third quarter three to put Ponte Vedra up 41-27.

"I told them to just keep moving, keep getting on the floor and keep fighting," Cole said. "I know they got the heart and they were all over the court in the fourth."

Oakleaf opened the fourth with a 5-0 scoring blast before Ponte Vedra hit a three; this one from junior Ella Spencer-Gardner, that got the Sharks their own 7-0 scoring surge to 48-32.

With a three from Nyla Parsons, Oakleaf got a jolt of energy for a final surge and tough rebounds from Destini Williams and even threes from inside powerhouse Mikayla Trusel to get as close as 39-48 with 3:27 to go.

"We were missing our threes, and we needed one or two in that stretch," Cole said. "Destini and Mikayla were battling for offensive boards and resetting the shots, but they weren't falling."

With fouls becoming a factor, Oakleaf ended with a strong rebound and layup from Williams to get as close as 52-43.

Against Fleming Island on Thursday, the Knights' defense harassed the Golden Eagles' lead scorer Gianna Crawford (23.7 points per game) to limit her to just 13 points en route to a 57-53 Knights win. The score was tied 29-29 at the half. Fleming Island dropped to 4-2 with upcoming games against Riverside, Creekside, Raines (4-1) and Branford before hosting the Fleming Island Battle on the Island tournament (Dec. 19-20).

Orange Park finished the week with three wins after a tournament loss to 5A power Booker T. Washington with wins over Middleburg (66-60), Ribault (59-48) and Bartram Trail (53-50) to go to 6-3 with Beachside (3-3), Ridgeview and Leon (3-1) on tap this week.

The Lady Raiders are getting balanced scoring from Trinity Dinkins (12.3), Ella Crowe (11.7) and Mariah Young (7.3). On defense, Crowe has 21 steals and 19 assists, as does Dinkins. Young has 16 steals and 12 assists.

Middleburg had back-to-back 70-point wins with a 70-48 over Ridgeview and a 79-29 over Tocoi Creek to go to 3-4. Freshman Kennedy Jeffress is smoking the nets with a 20 points per game average with 34 against Baker County and 24 against Ridgeview.

Ridgeview is still winless at 0-4.

Clay High girls basketball coach Doug Deter has a new clipboard on his coaching chair after a tough first season and the Lady Blue Devils have responded with a 4-1 record thus far with four straight wins and nearly 50 points per game with a 57-43 win over West Nassau and a 58-20 win over Global Outreach last week.

Senior guard Teaghan Moses leads the Lady Blue Devils with 15 points per game with sophomore Alia Chmura throwing down recently with games of 20, 12 and nine points in three wins.

Clay has upcoming games with Florida Deaf, Baldwin and Keystone Heights. Keystone Heights recently beat Baldwin 39-34 to stay undefeated at 4-0. Rigby Morford leads the Indians with an 8.7 points per game. Keystone Heights has West Nassau and Palatka before the Clay clash at home.