St. Thomas Aquinas nets state three-peat
5-time defending champ American Heritage falls
There was a time when the girls basketball team at St. Thomas Aquinas was an afterthought when it came to talking about the school’s multitude of state championships.
That time is not now.
The two-time defending state champion Raiders left little doubt this year as they rolled to a 67-43 blowout of Punta Gorda Charlotte in the FHSAA Class 6A state championship game at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland on Saturday.
The Raiders (24-8) are just the fourth Broward school to win three consecutive titles, joining American Heritage with five (2018-22) and Dillard (2010-13) and South Broward (2000-03) with four each.
American Heritage came up short of catching Miami Country Day (2014-19) with six consecutive titles as they fell to Daytona Beach Mainland, 62-61 in the Class 5A state title game. The Patriots fell behind by 20 points entering the fourth quarter and made a furious rally only to fall to the Buccaneers.
The Raiders started the season 12-8 and were without senior Alancia Ramsey, who tore her ACL before the season began. Ramsey, who was the Sun Sentinel’s Palm Beach small-schools player of the year in 2021.
“It was a very special day for us, winning our third straight state championship,” St. Thomas Aquinas coach Oliver Berens said by phone. After the slow start, the Raiders finished 12-0 winning the BCAA, district, regional, and state championships. “We had a grueling season with a lot of adversity.”
Before Berens’ arrival in the summer of 2017, the Raiders hadn’t reached even the regional final round since 2005 and had never taken home a state title. In 2018, Aquinas again reached the regional finals. The next year, they lost in heartbreaking fashion in the state championship game after the Raiders, up one in the waning seconds, called a timeout they didn’t have. The resultant technical free throw sent the game into overtime, and Tampa Bay Tech won 58-52. A regional semifinal loss to eventual state champion Blanche Ely in 2020 then set up this torrid run.
“We knew that we were battletested and it was only going to make us better,” Berens added. “We came up close in a lot of games and we just told the team to keep staying together, locked in, and playing hard and it will all pay off in the long run.”
After Charlotte (22-7) opened the second quarter on a 7-2 run to take a 24-23 lead on a free throw by Adaora Edeoga in the second quarter, the Raiders went on a 15-0 run thanks to sophomore Nyla McFadden, who scored eight of her 15 points during that stretch to break the game open and St. Thomas Aquinas never looked back. Berens said St. Thomas Aquinas used a variety of defenses and forced the Fightin’ Tarpons into 17 turnovers.
St. Thomas Aquinas senior Karina Gordon, who is headed to East Carolina University next fall, finished the contest with 20 points in the championship to earn her third championship ring.
“Charlotte was a tough and wellcoached team and congratulations to them on a great season,” Berens said. “They are a familiar opponent for us and made us work for everything.”
Gordon said she is happy to be a part of history at the school.
“It means so much to me to win our third straight state title with my sisters and go out my senior year on the right note,” Gordon said. “Our team really came together and played our best basketball at the most important time.”
Added McFadden, who also hauled down nine rebounds: “I was really focused and locked in from the beginning. We executed the game plan and when we are doing that, it makes it easier to get into a flow and rhythm.”
Raiders’ junior Kamryn Corporan also added 13 points and two steals in the win.
“I’m extremely proud of our girls for staying together, trusting each other, and working extremely hard to accomplish our end goal,” Berens said. “This is a very special group, and they will forever be remembered as creating a legacy and standard for St. Thomas Aquinas basketball.”
American Heritage rallies from down 20 in fourth but comes up just short of six-peat: American Heritage coach Greg Farias felt his girls’ basketball team could have played better at the beginning of the FHSAA Class 5A state championship game against Daytona Beach Mainland.
Trailing 50-30 entering the fourth quarter, the five-time defending state champion Patriots (23-8) nearly pulled off the impossible as their huge rally came up just short and they fell 62-61 on Saturday in Lakeland.
“We had some defensive mistakes like blown coverages, poor shot selection, and missed too many free throws,” Farias said of the early deficit. American Heritage was 0 of 5 from three-point range in the decisive third quarter and committed five turnovers. “We were able to come back in the fourth quarter because I switched the lineup to go small and put on a full-court pressure, to try and turn them over.”
American Heritage still left themselves a chance to win, however a long-distance 3-point attempt by junior guard Arielle Facyson with six seconds remaining was short.
The teams were tied at 10 at the end of the first and the Buccaneers seized a 30-25 halftime lead. American Heritage slipped in the third quarter getting outscored 20-5. Patriots’ sophomore Des McGill made a free throw to close the third-quarter gap to 32-26 before the Buccaneers outscored the Patriots 18-4, including the final 11 points of the period.
The Patriots then started to chip away at the lead in the final seven minutes of the game as they forced Mainland into eight turnovers. The Buccaneers also went 1 for 8 at the charity stripe.
With less than one minute remaining, Mainland’s Ronneisha Thomas sank a free throw to up the lead to 61-57. Patriots freshman guard Jasleen Green cut the lead to 61-59 before Thomas sank another free throw to extend the lead to 62-59.
Trailing 62-59 with 15 seconds remaining, Green got American Heritage within a point in the final 10 seconds, but it wasn’t meant to be.
Green finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Facyson led the Patriots with 17 points, while senior Sydni Studesville finished with 12.
American Heritage set the Broward County record last year with five consecutive state titles from 2018-22.