Battle-tested Aquinas girls’ basketball team coasts to fourth state title in a row
LAKELAND
Strength of schedule matters.
So does resilience.
Both of those factors propelled the Fort St. Thomas Aquinas girls’ basketball team to elite status among the state’s all-time best programs.
Facing previously unbeaten Valrico Bloomingdale, the Raiders didn’t take long to look like a far superior team on Saturday afternoon when they routed the Bulls 70-35 in the Class 6A state championship game at the RP Funding Center.
Aquinas (23-9) won its fourth consecutive state championship – a feat accomplished by three other Broward schools (Fort Lauderdale Dillard, Hollywood South Broward, Plantation American Heritage).
“I am incredibly proud of our girls,” Aquinas coach Oliver Berens said. “They have stayed resilient and have fought through a ton of adversity to get to this point.
“When you set out to make a tremendous goal for yourself and for your team, the more difficult it is, the better it feels at the end. Our girls really peaked at the end of the year and played their best basketball.”
Berens said he was not sure what shape his team would take this season with his roster at only nine players at one point before the games began.
But he saluted his team’s resiliency through a challenging slate that dealt them nine defeats, but prepared them to return to Lakeland for another chance at continuing their dynasty.
“We went into a national schedule, without as much depth as we thought, and with people adjusting to different roles,” Berens said. “Just to be able to come through that adversity and finish this, it feels special.”
The tough schedule was a big factor separating the teams on Saturday. Aquinas played several of the state’s top teams and even nationally ranked opponents while their opposition went 30-0 facing only teams from the central and West Florida area.
The result was the Raiders playing their best basketball in the playoffs including a win over rival Pompano Blanche Ely on the road in the regional final after having lost to the Tigers twice earlier in the season.
“With the schedule we played and seeing what Bloomingdale’s schedule was, we felt like we would give them something they hadn’t seen before,” Berens said. “We knew they would be in unfamiliar territory, and we’d be in a very familiar territory, and that made us incredibly confident.”
Aquinas trailed by two points within the first two minutes of the game before taking the lead for good and breaking the game open with a remarkable defensive stretch where it did not allow Bloomingdale a field goal for nine minutes and 41 seconds.
Kamryn Corporan led the defensive effort with eight of the Raiders’ 12 steals. She also had 20 points and six assists. The Raiders held the Bulls to 11 of 38 (28.9 percent) shooting and 0 for 12 from three-point range.
“I just came to play like I always play,” Corporan said. “Defense is the main part of how I play and I was just ready to play defense.”
Kalia Harrington finished with a game-high 22 points while Khadee Hession totaled 16 points, six rebounds and six assists.
Ka-zahria Johnson controlled things on the boards with 11 rebounds and four blocks as well as seven points.
Hession, who has signed with Georgetown, is a prime example of one of the Raiders, who had to adjust to a different role on the team and develop as a leader to keep Aquinas on course this season.
“Khadee has had one of the best seasons ever,” Berens said. “She took on a different role last year. She was more of our point guard this year, but she’s averaging 19 points a game and being as efficient as possible with shooting and still having all those assists. But the biggest way she stepped up was being the leader of this team. There’s nobody that works as hard as Khadee does.”
Hession is one of six seniors for Aquinas, which will try to become only the fourth program in state history to win five in a row next season.
“I wasn’t a part of all four (championships), but I knew coming to STA that this is a winning team,” Hession said. “They all put in so much work, especially Coach Oliver, and we wouldn’t be here without him. He supports all of us current and past players. We feel like we could beat any team in the state.”