GREEN COVE SPRINGS - Green Cove Springs Junior High boys basketball coach Doug Deters wondered what his Lake Asbury Junior High counterpart, Aaron Bridges, said at halftime in their conference clash in Green Cove Springs on Monday.

"I guess he woke them up in the locker room because they got at us in that third period," said Deters, who improved to 4-1 with a fourth quarter response to win a 44-27 contest. "We had to buckle down in the fourth to hold them off."

In the first quarter, Green Cove stormed to a 10-0 quick lead off fast break layups from Jaylen Robinson before Lake Asbury could get a bucket from big man Braden Cunningham at the 1:35 mark.

The Cougars continued to build on that momentum to a 22-10 halftime lead where Deters may have inadvertently taking his foot of the gas pedal in order to not run up an embarassing score against his cross-town rival.

"We may have gotten a little lax in the locker room thinking we were going to cruise to victory," said Deters. "Boy, were we surprised."

At the onset of the third period, Lake Asbury held Green Cove to just six points while canning 14 of their own with Blake Thomas nailing a three pointer with a minute to go to shock the hosts with a 28-24 gap before Ishan Naire hit a jumper at the buzzer to put the game at a precarious 30-24.

"I told them to settle in for a tussle and get back to fundamentals," said Deters.

Deters' boys rattled off 11 unanswered points with guard George Hamm "hammering" the paint for driving layups to lead the charge.

Lake Asbury finally scored on a Cunningham free throw with 1:20 to go for a score of 43-25.