FLEMING ISLAND - Fleming Island High boys basketball coach Traavis Chandler lamented that his new team had some fresh faces and some unknown entities.

"We were with a lot of new faces and would need some time to find the right combinations of athletic ability, determination and grit," said Chandler. "We may have gotten a bit closer tonight. We are very close to the Final Four ready that we want."

Chandler, after a scintillating 68-59 win over a very talented University Christian team that featured a stellar 6'-7" postman along with a handful of 6'-3" 6'-4" wingmen. "Tonight, our freshman center, Carson Crawford, showed that he will become a dominating paint player and junior Luke Frisbee, a junior varsity player last year and a state meet swimmer, showed some toughness with his energy and late shooting."

Crawford finished with 22 tough points in his battle with Christian's Henry Arthur who, in the fourth quarter, was miffed by referee calls against his attempt to body up against Crawford.

"They know he is just a freshman and they wanted to exploit that," said Chandler. "He manned up and played as tough a game against a team determined to shake him."

For Frisbee, who canned three consecutive corner three-pointers en route to five threes and a best game of 16 points in the Golden Eagles 73-41 win over Ridgeview on Friday.

"He has such a big engine from his swimming for a guy his size and he gets down the court very quickly," said Chandler. "When he is in that corner and we find him, he has landed that shot time and time. His stamina puts him three steps ahead of his defender."

Against Ridgeview, Crawford led the Golden Eagles with a 19-point game with 10 rebounds.

In game one of the Raiderdome Classic, Clay High, after their own "Thrilla in Manila" 57-55 win over Orange Park, with sophomore Alex Brown cashing in for 23 points, got enough rest and recoup to travel to the Raiderdome and take out previously unbeaten Franklin County (4-1) with a strong 61-48 response that has the Blue Devils at 5-1. The lone loss for coach Jared Moses was a 71-45 game to Bartram Trail on November 28.

"I told them that they need to get away from making "being a young team" as an excuse to lose," said Moses. "To have the game we had on Friday against Orange Park, then not blink to play as strong tonight against a very good team is a good sign as we head into the Christmas break."

Moses won't get a break in the limelight of the two wins with a schedule to the Christmas break that has once-beaten (5-1) Oakleaf, a winner over Final Four Ribault Thursday in the Fortegra Invitational, on December 15 and at Beachside (5-4) on the December 19.

Oakleaf, unbeaten in a clash with also unbeaten Ribault, went to two overtimes to take out the 4A Final Four Trojans 80-75 behind clutch outside shooting, lockdown fourth-quarter defense and a big three-pointer from guard Jelani Wright in the second overtime that followed a three-point drive and foul shot play from guard Aaron Rivers that put Oakleaf up 74-73.

The edge was enough to keep the Oakleaf's ahead as Ribault was forced to intentionally foul and the Knights hit three of four freebies to the win.

Oakleaf advanced to the tournament round two but lost 61-47 to Providence before defeating NFEI 78-51 for third place.

For Ribault, Rivers led the scoring with 26 points, three steals and four assists with Travis Know adding 21 points from the paint. Austin Davenport snared 13 rebounds.

Against NFEI, Oakleaf got points of 23 from Rivers, 14 from Wright and Michael Compere who also snagged 10 rebounds.

Against Providence, Compere and Rivers could muster just 11 points apiece to lead the Knights.

Ridgeview, under new coach Chandler Hodges, a Middleburg High standout, sits at 1-5 with a win over West Nassau in game one and a tough trip around the county with losses to Orange Park, Middleburg, Oakleaf, Clay and Fleming Island.

Hodges is getting 14 points per game from T'Vario Willis to lead the Panthers.

Middleburg, 4-1 with a loss on December 1 to P.K. Yonge (70-61) has been consistently scoring above 50 points with three games over 70 points. The Broncos get to the Christmas break with a flurry of six games to December 21; two on the road, four at home; Suwannee at 3:30 p.m. on Sat., Dec. 16.

Keystone Heights is 2-4 with two losses last week; Fort White and Palatka after two wins; Union County and Old Plank Christian Academy. Senior Andru Seimur leads the Indians with a 13.5 points per game average with Garrison Teague, Michael Bruzzese and Zane Leger just under 10 points per game.

Keystone Heights gets a visit from Clay on Tues., Dec. 12 and back to back-to-back games against Interlachen at home Thurs., Dec. 14 and a road game at Hawthorne Fri., Dec. 15.

Meanwhile, at St. Johns Country Day School (5-2), the Spartans got two wins last week; Christ's Church Academy and West Nassau, before Stanton knocked the streak out with a 69-61 loss to the Spartans.

The Spartans scoring attack is led by Cameron Cooper's 18.3 points per game, 22 threes, with junior Grayson Moody and Elliot Graham emerging with just under 210 points as well. Ian Mamea and Dylan Reach are snagging six-plus rebounds per game.

St. Johns finishes with six home games to December 29 including 7A Tocoi Creek on Fri., Dec. 15.