26 wins and counting: Inside Bishop Kenny girls basketball's run to FHSAA final four

After five regional championships in a row, people might think trophy collection is easy for Bishop Kenny girls basketball.

Crusaders coach Will Mayer knows otherwise.

"From the outside, it kind of looks easy, like a foregone conclusion," Mayer said. "But these girls have worked so hard to get back to this point, and they've dealt all year with the pressure of losing only one game."

For the fifth consecutive season, Bishop Kenny tips off against the state's best in Lakeland, facing Fort Lauderdale Cardinal Gibbons at noon Thursday in the Florida High School Athletic Association Class 4A girls basketball semifinal.

Ranked fourth in the FHSAA across all Florida, the Crusaders (29-1) have racked up a winning streak of 26 games, and they've worked for it.

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MAYER'S MAGIC NUMBER

For the top statistical defense among Northeast Florida's teams in FHSAA district play, Mayer focuses on a magic number.

"Our number that we have is 45," Mayer said. "We feel if we can keep teams under 45, we're going to win."

Most often, opponents haven't even threatened that figure. On average, Bishop Kenny is limiting foes to 28.8 points.

Against the post players and the shooters, against speed and muscle, the magic number has held up again and again. Only one team — Legion Collegiate of South Carolina on Dec. 29, in a matchup Bishop Kenny won anyway at 57-46 — has topped 45 against the Crusaders. Their lone loss, to Westminster Academy in November, came in a 40-35 grinder of a game at the Insider Exposure Thanksgiving Classic.

That stifling defense pays off in transition points, often fired on the break to senior leading scorer Sophia Rueppell.

"We've learned to be comfortable with our plays, to just trust each other and not be nervous," guard Riley Talbert said.

NEW 3-POINT MASTERS

For the past four years of Bishop Kenny's streak, the Crusaders looked for 3-point fireworks from Maddie Millar, who finished second in Florida high school career history for threes.

Now that Millar is knocking down threes in college at the University of North Florida, outside shooting has become a team game for the Crusaders.

Friday's regional final against Panama City Rutherford was a prime example. Bishop Kenny seized command with six threes in the first nine minutes, and ended with four threes each from Rueppell and Talbert.

In addition to those two, Reese Mayer, Ellie Brown and Lena Granuzzo all shoot 30 percent or better.

"We all take turns, we can all shoot the ball and we can all score," Talbert said. "So it's super nice that we can all count on each other. One night somebody will be hitting [3-pointers], the next night it'll be someone else, so we really show our teamwork."

WINNING HABIT

By now, Bishop Kenny is practically making annual reservations for Lakeland. But winning there, and ending a state title wait stretching to 1992, is another matter.

To change that, Mayer lined up a daunting schedule — the Insider Exposure tournament in Jacksonville, plus trips to Palm Beach County and Atlanta — in a slate ranked second-toughest in the area by MaxPreps.

"We went to Atlanta, played really good teams in Atlanta," Mayer said. "So we built the schedule for this purpose, to get ready for this game, and I think it definitely helped us."

They're motivated by the disappointments, and no one has dished those out like Lake Highland Prep. The Orlando school knocked out Bishop Kenny in 2020 and 2021, and they could be waiting in Saturday's final.

But for the Crusaders, there's always an energizer. Sometimes it's Coyle, with seven double-doubles on the year. Sometimes it's sophomore Abby Baker, pulling down rebounds on the inside. Sometimes it's athletic junior Sydney Roundtree, credited by Mayer for helping put away stubborn Rutherford Friday.

Maybe, this year, the magic number will bring a magic finish on Kingman Avenue.

"Last year, we had so many young people and they had not experienced that," Rueppell said. "So this year, we're coming in with a lot more experience and hopefully we're a lot more ready for that big stage."

CLASS 4A STATE SEMIFINAL

Bishop Kenny (29-1) vs. Cardinal Gibbons (22-5)

12 p.m. Thursday

RP Funding Center, Lakeland

This is rematch time for Bishop Kenny, which already played the Chiefs and beat them 51-40 in the final of the Holiday Basketball Classic of the Palm Beaches on Dec. 29 through 20 points from Sydney Roundtree and a 13-point, 12-rebound double-double from Clare Coyle. While seven Cardinal Gibbons players average seven or more points, Bishop Kenny must be particularly wary of a pair of senior stars: 6-foot forward Brooke Buckman averages a double-double (16.5 points, 12.0 rebounds) on the inside, and guard Konstantina Mantziori averages eight assists per game on top of her 12-point average from point guard. A Crusaders win means a 12:30 p.m. Saturday final against Lake Highland Prep or Sarasota Booker.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: High school girls basketball 2023: Bishop Kenny Crusaders in final four