Basketball Preview: Fleming Island Golden Eagles vs. Orange Park Raiders
Fleming Island is 8-2 against the Raiders since January of 2016, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Tuesday. The Fleming Island Golden Eagles will square off against the Orange Park Raiders at 7:00 p.m. Both teams come into the matchup bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
Buchholz typically has all the answers at home, but on Friday Fleming Island proved too difficult a challenge. They had just enough and edged the Bobcats out 46-43. The victory was all the more spectacular given Fleming Island's disadvantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 217th, while the Bobcats are ranked 95th).
George Hamm and Carson Crawford were among the main playmakers for Fleming Island as the former scored 12 points along with five assists and the latter dropped a double-double on 11 points and ten rebounds. Crawford hasn't dropped below nine rebounds for ten straight games. The team also got some help courtesy of Marcus Reed, who scored nine points.
Meanwhile, Orange Park entered their tilt with the Christians with five consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with six. In a tight contest that could have gone either way, Orange Park made off with a 51-50 win over the Christians.
Fleming Island has been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six matches, which provided a nice bump to their 14-11 record this season. As for Orange Park, they pushed their record up to 17-7 with that win, which was their third straight at home.
Fleming Island was able to grind out a solid victory over the Raiders when the teams last played back in January, winning 69-62. The rematch might be a little tougher for Fleming Island since the squad won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
