Basketball Game Preview: Oakleaf Knights vs. Ridgeview Panthers

Two dominant guards in Roslyn Weston and Narissa Blocton are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Oakleaf Knights will head out on the road to take on the Ridgeview Panthers at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Both teams are coming into the contest red-hot, with Oakleaf sitting on three straight wins and Ridgeview on nine.

Oakleaf's tournament run continued when they took on Fleming Island on Monday. Oakleaf came out on top against Fleming Island by a score of 49-37.

Meanwhile, a well-balanced attack led Ridgeview over Keystone Heights in every quarter on their way to victory on Monday. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that Ridgeview blew Keystone Heights out of the water with a 56-12 final score. Given the Panthers' advantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 63rd, while the Indians are ranked 573rd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Oakleaf better focus on containing Blocton and Nacoya Blocton as the pair were huge in Ridgeview's win. Narissa went 8 for 16 en route to 19 points and seven steals, while Nacoya posted 14 points and four steals. Narissa has been hot for a while, having posted two or more steals the last 12 times she's played. Another player making a difference was Emma Rayes, who scored 11 points.

Ridgeview was working as a unit and finished the game with 14 assists. That's the most assists they've posted since back in December of 2023.

Ridgeview has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won 11 of their last 12 matches, which provided a nice bump to their 14-3 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 50.6 points per game. As for Oakleaf, they pushed their record up to 12-9 with the victory, which was their third straight on the road.

Oakleaf was taken down by Ridgeview 55-21 in their previous matchup back in January of 2024. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Blocton, who almost dropped a double-double on 25 points and nine boards. Now that Oakleaf knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.