Middleburg Fl- Numbers can sometimes lie and in the case of the Bishop Kenny girls’ basketballs record, they have. The Lady Crusaders are not an average team like their record would suggest, they are one of the best teams in Northeast Florida and proved it Wednesday night after beating an undefeated Middleburg Lady Broncos team 69-53.
Bishop Kenny Head Coach Charlsea Clark knew the tough schedule she played to start the season would help her team down the line in getting back to the state finals. Clark’s team went up against two of the top teams in Florida (Bolles and St. Thomas Aquinas) and one of the top teams in Oklahoma (Norman), losing all three but learning from the losses.
Middleburg scored the first points of the evening and startled the young backcourt of the Bishop Kenny to a quick lead. Bishop Kenny played man to man against Middleburg, playing Seton Hall commit Brittany Range full court denying her the ball, she wasn’t able to touch the ball until the six-minute mark of the first quarter. Bishop Kenny was able to run up the score and led by as many as eight points in this quarter. Middleburg was forced to call a timeout after back to back baskets for Bishop Kenny by sophomore guard Maddie Millar and junior guard Jasmyne Roberts. Bishop Kenny was able to hold Range scoreless in the first quarter and holding onto a three-point lead.
Range was able to score her first points in the second quarter on a free throw. The Lady Crusaders changed out their defender on Range as Roberts was heating up, not allowing her to expend all of her energy on the defensive end. Both teams were in the bonus early in the second quarter putting valuable players for Middleburg like sophomore forward Sam Hardison and junior center Skylar Baltezegar on the bench early in favor of Bishop Kenny. Roberts continued to dominate for Bishop Kenny, netting 14 points in the first half. Middleburg tried to get their star player involved putting her in different positions, posting her up, having her bring the ball up, whatever would get her involved offensively. Bishop Kenny would head into halftime up by six and momentum favoring them.
Middleburg would start the second half with the ball and would hit shots early to make the game interesting. However, the Lady Broncos were never able to close the gap and get closer than five points. A big blow came to Middleburg when Baltezegar fouled out of the game halfway through the third quarter. Middleburg still trying to run the offense through Range, went to a full court man and was able to get two quick scores off of some Bishop Kenny turnovers, forcing them to use a timeout.
Another blow came at the one minute mark of the third quarter when the Middleburg bench was hit with a technical foul, Middleburg never recovered. Without their center and a stagnant offense, the Lady Broncos started to cool off and slow down while Bishop Kenny grew more energy taking the lead to 19. Middleburg kept the pressure on hoping that a late push could put them over the edge, they could not hold on.
Bishop Kenny was led by Roberts with 28 points, Nesmith and Millar with 15 points. Middleburg was led by seniors Mar’ria Davis with 19 points and Range with 18 points.
Bishop Kenny (3-3) will travel down to central Florida to play Atlantic (3-1) and Braden River (1-2) this weekend. Middleburg (5-1) defeated Bartram Trail 60-47 on Friday, and will travel to Ocala, Florida to face Vanguard (4-2) on December 10th.
