ORANGE PARK – The inaugural St. Johns River Athletic Conference Boys Hoops tournament will take place this week at both Fleming Island and Orange Park High Schools.
The St. Johns River Athletic Conference is a 9 team conference made up of teams from all over Clay, St. Johns, Flagler and Putnam counties including: Middleburg, Orange Park, Fleming Island, Bartram Trail, St. Augustine, Nease, Menendez, Palatka and Matanzas. The top eight teams qualify for the three-day basketball tournament, Middleburg (1-18) was the odd team out.
Eight teams will play three guaranteed games at either Fleming Island or Orange Park. The tournament is two separate brackets at each site with the two bracket winners advancing to the title game Saturday at Orange Park.
Here is a run down of the eight teams participating in the inaugural tournament.
#1 Palatka Panthers (19-1)
Head Coach: Bryant Oxendine
Outlook: For 19 consecutive games, nobody could stop the Panthers Brandon Hampton and Chamar Dumas; but that changed in their last game as Ponte Vedra stunned Palatka 54-45 days ago to end the 19 game winning streak. Look for the Panthers to start another long winning streak beginning this week.
#2 Bartram Trail Bears (14-5)
Head Coach: Jeremiah Teuscher
Outlook: If their is another team you don’t want to see its Bartram Trail. The Bears started out 2-4 but since have gone 12-1 despite having to play every game on the road or at a neutral site due to their gym being refurbished.
#3 Orange Park Raiders (14-6)
Head Coach: Derek Kurnitsky
Outlook: Don’t sleep on the host Raiders who not only have home court advantage but a good program and coach as well. The tournaments best player John Abate (13.6 p.p.g) could easily take over the tourney and lead the Raiders to the title.
#4 Fleming Island Golden Eagles (14-11)
Head Coach: Travis Chandler
Outlook: A potential sleeper team is Fleming Island with Sebastian Astor (11.5 ppg), Joshua Deleon (10.5 p.p.g.) and Gianfranco Grafals (14.5 p.p.g.), who co hosts the tourney with Orange Park.
#5 Matanzas Pirates (11-8)
Head Coach: Donald Lockhart
Outlook: Little is known about the Matanzas program which is probably how Lockhart likes it. Look for the Pirates to be another sleeper team capable of pulling off an upset or two especially behind Greg Layne (15.8 p.p.g.)
#6 Nease Panthers (7-13)
Head Coach: Joshua Bailey
Outlook: Nease comes into the tourney on a two-game winning streak and full of confidence but do the Panthers have enough fire power to pull off several upsets?
#7 St. Augustine Yellow Jackets (8-10)
Head Coach: Quinterrance Cooper
Outlook: Former Yellow Jacket grid-iron star who played at Western Kentucky and on the Jackets 2005 state championship team, has had a challenging first year to say the least.
#8 Pedro Menendez Falcons (5-12)
Head Coach: Adam Holmes
Outlook: The Falcons are the long shots to win the tournament sitting at 0-7 in their district which includes Matanzas and Palatka as well as a schedule which also features losses to St. Augustine and Nease.
NOTE: The three day tournament will be broadcasted on the NFHSNetwork.com site for a monthly fee of $10 which will allow fans to not only watch all 6 games being broadcasted but other games around the state or nationwide.
St. Johns River Athletic Conference Boys Hoops Tourney
TUESDAY
at Fleming Island
Game 1: No. 8 Pedro Menendez vs No. 1 Palatka, 6
Game 2: No. 5 Matanzas vs No. 4 Fleming Island, 7:30
at Orange Park
Game 3: No. 7 St. Augustine vs No. 2 Bartram Trail, 6
Game 4: No. 6 Nease vs No. 3 Orange Park,, 7:30
THURSDAY
at Fleming Island
Game 5: Loser 1 vs Loser 2, 6 p.m.
Game 6: Winner 1 vs Winner 2, 7:30
at Orange Park
Game 7: Loser 3 vs Loser 4, 6 p.m.
Game 8: Winner 3 vs Winner 4, 7:30
SATURDAY
at Orange Park
Game 9: 7th Place game, 11 a.m.
Game 10: 5th Place game 12:30
Game 11: 3rd Place game, 2 p.m.
Game 12: Title game, 3:30 p.m.
