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 on Saturday, Dec. 6.

"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 Saturday afternoon at Oakleaf. "We are moving so fast that sometimes we get the steal and throw a bad pass to get downcourt. We will be honing in on making less mistakes like that as we go."

In 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, 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 then got hot with three in the first eight minutes of the third quarter to give 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 Tresel 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, the Knights' defense harassed 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 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 got 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, with Young with 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 was 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 near 50 points per game with a 57-43 win over West Nassau and a 58-20 win over Global Outreach.

Senior guard Teaghan Moses led 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 had games with Florida School for the Deaf and Blind, Baldwin and Keystone Heights. Keystone Heights beat Baldwin 39-34 to stay undefeated at 4-0. Rigby Morford led the Indians with an 8.7 points per game.

Keystone Heights had West Nassau and Palatka before the Clay clash at home.