First Coast Varsity Weekly: Unbeaten Providence basketball off to the races

When does a two-point basketball nail-biter turn into a 19-point margin in minutes?

When the Providence Stallions are in the house, and off to the races.

Jim Martin is used to the feeling.

"I think that's how we play," the longtime Providence boys basketball coach said. "We go on some pretty good runs offensively, and then we get a few stops… We're a little bit more fast-paced, and then things start really clicking for us."

Providence showed Northeast Florida's hoops world just how quickly it can accelerate from 0 to 60, lifting the trophy at the annual High School 9:12 Fortegra Basketball Invitational at Florida State College at Jacksonville South Campus.

After one quarter in Saturday's final, Providence and Nease were evenly matched in a grind-it-out battle at 8-6. Then came three straight offensive boards and put-backs, two by Jaylen Robinson, to spark a 16-0 run and an avalanche of baskets for a quick 36-17 lead.

Coming off the bench, David Fonville and Brady Patterson launched 3-point bombs from outside as the Stallions showed off their depth to win 59-40 for their third title at the annual tournament.

"We've been playing 10 guys, and I think that's a great weapon to have," Martin said.

Blink and you missed it.

For Providence (7-0), it's almost par for the course. That second quarter wasn't even the Stallions' most back-breaking run of the tournament — they unleashed a 26-0 run in Thursday's 87-35 opening-round victory against Mandarin.

They've also shown they can win a battle, holding off a gritty effort from Oakleaf, 58-53, in Friday's semifinal. The disciplined Knights, with double-figure scorers in Cameron Coachman, Devin Kersh and Travis Knox, pushed Providence into overtime.

Named to the All-Tournament team were the Providence trio of Robinson, Chris Arias and Mason Lee, along with Oakleaf's Kersh and Nease guard Bryson Utter.

For Martin, the three-day event is a taste of the tests to come. Providence travels this weekend to the City of Palms tournament against an elite field in Fort Myers, followed by the Kingdom of the Sun in Ocala from Dec. 27-30.

"Teams can compete with us, but we also know they also can't guard us all at the same time," said junior forward Robinson, named the tournament's most valuable player. "What we do is try to find a mismatch each game and attack that hard."

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Northeast Florida teams star at WIST

Once again, the road to a state girls soccer championship looks like it will run through Northeast Florida.

That's the message after the weekend's Montverde Women's Invitational Showcase Tournament at Montverde Academy west of Orlando, in which area teams made up five of the 12-team elite field.

Other than reigning Class 7A champion Creekside, shut out 1-0 by Doral Academy and 3-0 by Montverde, the weekend was a winner for the First Coast schools.

• Bartram Trail earned a 1-1 draw with national independent superpower Montverde on its own turf, then notched a 1-0 shutout of Class 3A champion Lakeland Christian. Texas A&M commit Grace Ivey set up both goals, assisting Olivia Bori for the score against Montverde and then feeding sophomore Brooke Gosse for Saturday's winner.

• Izzy Whitaker led Ponte Vedra's attack as the Sharks chomped to a pair of wins, 2-0 over Lakeland Christian and 3-2 against Winter Park. Jenny Dearie and Lily Morse both found the net as well.

• No team made a more decisive statement than St. Johns Country Day, winner of the last 11 FHSAA titles in the small-school division. The Spartans beat Viera 4-1 with two goals from senior Lauryn Mateo and one each from Avery Raimondo and Sydney Schmidt, then shut out Venice 5-0 with goals from Raimondo, Schmidt, Sophia Pontieri, Cece Nowicki and Alixandria Fletcher.

• Class 6A champion Fletcher also showed it's back to winning ways. The Senators tied 1-1 against undefeated Class 4A champion Bishop Moore, then won 1-0 against South Florida's Doral Academy.

McMahon, Murphy race short course worlds

A Northeast Florida swimming legend and a promising newcomer are ready to go for the gold Down Under.

Mandarin graduate Kensey McMahon is scheduled to race in her first-ever world championship in the pool Thursday at the FINA Short Course World Championships in Melbourne, Australia, while Bolles graduate Ryan Murphy tackles another major international competition at the same event.

McMahon, 23, races for the United States in the women's 1,500-meter freestyle, equivalent to 60 laps in the shorter pool. She earned first-team All-American recognition at 1,650 meters last year at the University of Alabama.

Earlier this year, she raced in the world open water championships in Budapest, placing 10th in the punishing 25-kilometer race.

Meanwhile, four-time Olympic gold medalist Murphy races the short-course finals for the third time, after previously competing there in 2012 and 2018. Coming off his world championship in the 200 backstroke this summer in Hungary, he's racing that distance as well as the 50 and 100 back.

Bolles grad Hicks adds European trophy

Charles Hicks is racing away from the pack on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

Running for Great Britain, the former Bolles state champion won Sunday morning's European Cross Country U23 Championships at La Mandria Park, located just outside Turin in Italy.

Hicks turned up his pace on the finishing climb to win in 22:12, three seconds ahead of British teammate Zak Mahamed. It's his second consecutive victory in the event, after winning last December's championships in Dublin.

Last month, Hicks also won the NCAA cross country championships for Stanford in Stillwater, Okla.

BK's Valley named state's top coach

Laurel Valley is officially on top of the Sunshine State's coaching world in the pool.

The Bishop Kenny swimming coach won the Florida Dairy Farmers coach of the year award for boys swimming after leading the Crusaders to a second consecutive Class 2A championship last month in Stuart.

The Crusaders won one individual championship (Barrie Snyder in the 50-yard freestyle) but beat the field by 107.5 points. Their keys: error-free relay technique, with a clean sweep of all three team races, and excellent depth. In addition to Snyder, BK's Graham Evans, Zach Jones, Owen Kerkezi, Evan Larson, Matthew Leitheiser and Carter Wright all qualified for individual A finals.

Also winning Florida Dairy Farmers awards for their respective classes were Bolles' Peter Verhoef in Class 1A boys and girls, Nease's Gus Calado in Class 3A boys and Ponte Vedra's Junior Temotio in Class 3A girls.

Stanton's Mehdi Elaoufir also received the swimmer of the year award for Class 2A boys. The Florida State-bound senior won championships in the 200-yard individual medley and the 100 free, earning All-American consideration in both.

Mustangs, Golden Eagles clash Wednesday

The clock is ticking toward the premier regular-season clash of the boys soccer season's first half.

Fleming Island (6-0-1) welcomes Mandarin (8-0) to Clay County for a 7:20 p.m. Wednesday kickoff, matching teams coming off hat tricks in their last games (William Kennedy for the Golden Eagles against Oakleaf, Antonio Mancinotti on Monday for Mandarin against Fletcher).

Just how big? Check out the numbers.

The goal differentials are lopsided (38-7 for Fleming Island, 43-5 for Mandarin) and the national rankings are sky-high (No. 5 for Fleming Island in the MaxPreps system, No. 8 for Mandarin). And there's also the memory remaining from last season, when the Mustangs romped 7-0 behind four goals from Mancinotti and three more from Pedro Alarcon.

Clayton Freeman covers high school sports and more for the Florida Times-Union. Follow him on Twitter at @CFreemanJAX.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: First Coast Varsity Weekly: Providence boys basketball wins Fortegra Invitational