JACKSONVILLE - With fast-moving offenses and tenacious defense, Orange Park and Fleming Island high basketball summer teams opened up with impressive wins in their Ribault Summer Basketball League openers on Thursday with the Raiders taking out Mandarin and Fleming Island holding off Fletcher; both Mandarin and Fletcher top Class 6A teams from last year.

"We got a work a little on our team defense in the third period," said Orange Park coach Derek Kurnitsky, who has kept his Raiders' team busy with an Orange Park hosted summer league two-week tournament prior to the Ribault event. "We're missing some incoming players, including freshman Austin Triggs with an injured finger, who work over the summer and may be with family vacations. I just want to see energy on the court."
Triggs is younger brother to former Raider standout Archieve Triggs from Kurnistky's 23-5 team in 2022 that made the region playoffs.

For the Raiders, with their 64-40 win over Mandarin, the Raiders got strong outside shooting from Derek Aponte with a handful of threes and inside strength in the paint from forwards Cace Puzie and Markell Campbell.

"Cace is strong inside player from our junior varsity that will contribute to our inside game," said Kurnitsky. "We have to replace Quayshon Blot, our muscle from last year."

For Fleming Island, with center Carson Crawford showing out with rebounds and two attempted dunks, the Golden Eagles were led by quick flick passing from guard Diego Rivera and inside drives from stocky guard Alex Brown in their hard fought 61-54 win over Fletcher.
Fleming Island kept a solid 10-15 point lead over the Senators with just eight players suiting up with Fletcher landing a handful of late three pointers to close the gap. For Fleming Island, guard Nate Lowery showed his long range shooting with his own three pointers. 
Fletcher made the Class 6A region playoffs, but lost in round one to Final Four finisher Tocoi Creek. Fleming Island, in Class 5A, got to round two before losing to Leon who lost to Ponte Vedra in the region finals. Ponte Vedra lost in the Class 5A championship game to Blanche Ely High, 44-38.

The Ribault Summer Basketball League continues with Orange Park playing games on June 17, June 19 and June 24.