Aquinas girls’ basketball reaches fourth consecutive state final
LAKELAND
The St. Thomas Aquinas girls’ basketball team knows all about staying even-keel through the most intense pressure.
Navigating a national schedule presented the Raiders challenges nearly every night on the basketball court this season.
Setbacks such as a lopsided loss to rival Blanche Ely in the BCAA final a month ago tested Aquinas’ resolve.
But the Raiders have learned how to stay consistent through what is now one victory away from being a run of four consecutive state championships.
“That second loss to
Ely, something like 30 points and we got together and said that’s not going to happen again,” Aquinas forward Mya Johnson said. “We knew we had more games. We just locked in and came together and tried for the ‘four-peat.’ ”
Aquinas avenged that loss and has looked virtually unstoppable since then as it did on Thursday when it routed Wekiva 62-35 in a Class 6A state semifinal at the RP Funding Center.
The Raiders were led by Khadee Hession, who nearly had a triple-double, finishing with 20 points, 10 steals and eight rebounds. Hession was one of four players who scored in double figures.
Mya Johnson had 14 points and 12 rebounds and Ka-zahria Johnson had 10 points and 11 rebounds. Kamryn Corporan also finished with 10 points, six steals, five rebounds and four assists.
“I thought we really had a complete team effort today,” Aquinas coach Oliver Berens said. “We were well balanced with five players in double digits with three players that had a double-double.
It was a complete, solid disciplined effort from start to finish.”
The Raiders (22-9) face either Ponte Vedra or Valrico Bloomingdale in the 6A final on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. as they try to become the fourth Broward County school to win four consecutive state championships, joining South Broward, Dillard and American Heritage.
“We have a very veteran team,” Berens said. “We have five seniors and juniors with a lot of experience. What we pride ourselves on during the course of the year is playing a national-level schedule. The important thing was playing the toughest schedule we could play.”
Before this championship run, Aquinas had never won a state title.
Now the Raiders are one of the most prolific and clutch playoff programs in Broward County history. STA has won 19 consecutive regional and state playoff games. It’s the fourth longest such streak in Broward girls’ basketball history behind only American Heritage (29), South Broward (22) and Dillard (22).
Hession said the key to that is not looking past any opponent.
“When I play a game, I focus on the game at hand and don’t think ahead,” Hession said. “We just had to do all of our assignments.”
Aquinas trailed briefly in the opening minutes of the game before its defense helped it take control for good and open up a double-digit lead just before halftime.
The Raiders’ full-court pressure contributed to 28 Wekiva turnovers.
“Our girls did a wonderful job playing with confidence and they’ve had a lot of success,” Berens said. “The thing with this team is we can have a lot of different defenses. The greatest thing about this team and playing defense is that we’re very versatile.”