ORANGE PARK – In their region quarterfinal on Fri., Feb. 10, the Ridgeview Lady Panthers faced what may have been the tallest hurdle all season. After defeating the Rickards Lady Raiders just six nights prior to win the first ever Lady Panther District Title, the team faced off again versus the Raiders in round one of the State Championship tournament. The Raiders came out with an entirely different scheme to shut down Nia Blocton who was the team leader in game one with 22 points. The Panthers sisterhood pulled together and had several players, including Nacoya Blocton with 20 points and Paetyn Miller with 13 points, fill the gap making sure they had a repeat performance to send the Raiders home for the season with a 51-44 region quarterfinal win to advance to the semifinal round.

“Pretty tough because they knew us, but we knew them as well,” said Panther Head Coach Tyler Miller. “I fought myself, should I change it up and show them something new defensive wise, or stick with what worked? It was like ping-pong going back and forth with it. But we stuck with what we did. Rickards came out with a ton of energy. They had a charter bus this trip, so maybe it was the better ride. Tonight was a lot more aggressive, more like the Rickards I saw in film. Once we relaxed in the second quarter and made a run, we went right back to doing what we were doing in the first quarter.”

With the win, Ridgeview (21-7, No. 4 in 5A) advances to play second seed Fort Walton Beach (19-6, No. 3 in 5A, beat Booker T. Washington 49-23) on Tues., Feb., 14 with the Panthers garnering a third seed ranking. In the other semifinal, top seed Daytona Beach Mainland (17-8, No. 2 seed, beat Ed White 72-28) hosts fifth seed Pensacola Pine Forest (16-11, No. 8 in 5A, beat St. Augustine (42-32). American Heritage (Plantation), the defending Class 5A champion, is the top seed at 20-7 with Fort Walton Beach holding a 17.4-16.9 strength of schedule edge.

In region 4-5A, American Heritage (20-7) is the top sed while, in region 3-5A, Clearwater (16-10) is the top seed.

Gateway High of Kissimmee (22-6) is the to seed in region 2-5A.

After defeating Rickards last Friday in their district final, Ridgeview emerged ranked third in the region. In a strange twist of FHSAA line-up fate, the Raiders ranked sixth would draw the same Panthers for their region 1-5A opener.

While the Panthers would know all the tricks the Raiders would try, the Raiders also knew how Ridgeview would defend them and could adjust. The modifications around their number one player, Genesis Henry seemed to work as she was held to six points in the first meeting and had 19 tonight. The other obvious change was guarding of the Panthers scoring leader, Nia Blocton who was held to zero field goals on the evening, and hit three of five foul shots.

The Panther bench went deep tonight with six different players racking up points, led by Nacoya Blocton and backed up by Paetyn Miller. Miller was on fire all evening, flying around the court on defense and making steal after steal. “We knew it was going to be tough playing them back-to-back and they wanted their win back,” said Miller. “We went in with 100% and stayed focused. We got away from it a little bit, and we just talked to each other and got back into it.” The other pickpocket was Emma Rayes. The five-foot, two-inch guard was all over the floor being nothing but a menace to the Raider offense. Her stat of only nine points doesn’t tell the whole story as her two three-pointers were jumper cables when her team needed them, lighting the gym up and getting her teammates to pick it up a notch.

With the quarter scores of 11-11 after the first, and 22-23 with the Panthers in the lead at the half, this game was coming down to who has the bigger heart. Late into the third, the Raiders pulled in front as the Panthers could not get the ball to finish the job. Just before the buzzer, the Raiders led 33-32.

From the throw-in of the fourth quarter, both teams pulled out everything they had. Both teams were flying up and down the court, and the 14 combined fouls showed the intensity. With 5:08 to play, Nacoya Blocton went to the line and drained both her free throws to help advance the Panther lead, 40-37. With around 2:00 to play, left all alone at the top of the key, Rayes opted not to pass and try again as she hit her second three, 45-42. “It feels really good, like my team knows I have their back,” said an elated Rayes. “In the fourth, they just gave me too much space, hand down, man down so I had to shoot it. I started to hang my head when the first one didn’t go in early, but I just had to worry about the next play.” With 1:00 to play, Rickards scored their last points with free throws, 45-44. Off the rebound, Nacoya went coast-to-coast with a layup for the 47-44 lead that lit up the gym. With :18.5 to play, Rickards Ashley Holmes who was near perfect from the line all night, rimmed out both shots.

Coming down with the ball, Nia Blocton was fouled by Genesis Henry ending Henry’s night. Nia went to the line and hit nothing but net both times to go ahead 49-44. So frustrated with the Panther defense, as the Raiders were feeling the heavy pressure deep inside the Panthers offensive end of the court, they tried a court long pass which went out of bounds and turned the ball back to the Panthers with :04.5 to play. On the throw-in, the Raiders intentionally fouled Miller who went to the line to drain both shots to end the game 51-44.