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Fourth quarter dooms Fleming Island girls hoops

By Ray DiMonda
Posted 12/27/18

FLEMING ISLAND – A 21-12 fourth quarter scoring deficit erased a three-quarter effort by the Fleming Island High girls basketball team that spelled a 59-52 defeat to Orlando’s Bishop Moore High …

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Fourth quarter dooms Fleming Island girls hoops


Posted

FLEMING ISLAND – A 21-12 fourth quarter scoring deficit erased a three-quarter effort by the Fleming Island High girls basketball team that spelled a 59-52 defeat to Orlando’s Bishop Moore High School in the championship game of the inaugural Battle on the Island Christmas Basketball Tournament.

“There is just a few things we need to work on, but you just can’t work on mental toughness,” said Fleming Island High coach Joey Williams. “We just have to get mental toughness and they made turnovers at the worst time. We’ve been up every game that we played in the fourth quarter, that we lost. It’s like they don’t put it away for some reason.”

The first annual Battle on the Island Christmas Basketball Tournament lived up to it’s namesake as the Fleming Island Girls Team worked their way through the 16-team field over two days, to find themselves in a battle royal with the team from Orlando’s Bishop Moore High, The Hornets. Fleming defeated Thomas County Central and University Christian to make it in to Saturday night’s final. The Golden Eagles went into the half up by six points and seemed to overcome their Achilles Heel third quarter woes, only being outscored by four points.

Moving in to the fourth quarter still up by two, 40-38, all the ladies needed to do was play smart defense and keep adding to the score. Both halves of that equation seemed to fall apart as the Golden Eagles were outscored 21-12 in the fourth quarter and let the inaugural Battle on the island Championship slip through their fingers with a 59-52 defeat.

Williams had reason for being so upset. As his team dominated the tournament’s previous games, his girls came out tonight and committed 17 turnovers.

Senior Molly Ragle was one of the four or five team leaders that stayed in the weight room post-game, after Coach Williams left.

“We were talking about our chemistry and that’s our problem right now,” said Ragle. “Chemistry and turnovers, how we need to get together and find a way to fix it together, not separately. We need to bond together.”

Fleming Island came out guns blazing in the first quarter with a good offensive stand, racking up 16 points to the Hornet’s 13. The second quarter, both teams shifted to a defensive posture as each team was held to single digit scoring. Fleming Island would hold a hard earned six-point advantage at the half. Williams does not waste time heading back to a locker room. His team stayed courtside, they took a breather as he made adjustments, and they were warming up as the Hornets came back to the court.

The Golden Eagle’s Girls issue of coming out flat in the third quarter seemed to find a hole to hide in as the girls kept pace with Bishop Moore. They were outscored 20-16 in the third, but still retained a 40-38 lead.

In the fourth, Bishop Moore’s Reilly Boehm caught fire. She only had three baskets from the field, but when she was fouled, she went to the line and drained six out of seven free throws. Alone, Boehm’s fourth quarter scoring equaled all of Fleming Island’s fourth quarter scoring. For whatever reason, the girls could not get the ball to go in the basket.

The stats show the issues and the coaches and the players both know what needs done.

“Four turnovers in the last four possessions. We take a lead by four or five and we just turn it over” said Williams.

Tia Robinson was the team high scorer with 23 points, one three pointer, and Aubrey Burke racked up 16, with two three-pointers before she fouled out late in the game.