JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Bishop Kenny girls basketball team got it done.
The Crusaders won their first state championship since their dynasty days in the early 1990s, topping Bishop Moore 58-48 in the Class 4A game at UNF on Thursday. Shea Donovan had 16 points followed by Makala DesJarlais (13) and Kathleen Crawley (10).
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The Crusaders were a girls basketball dynasty from 1990-92, winning three consecutive championships.
It ended a streak of four championship game losses for the Crusaders and put an exclamation point on so many close calls. Head coach Will Mayer took Kenny to finals in 2023 and ’24, only to come up short against Lake Highland Prep. And it delivered the area’s first girls championship since Ribault last brought it home in 2017. Since then, area girls teams had combined to go 0-10 in the final.
Kenny (28-4) trailed 31-28 at half but flipped things with excellent defense to start the third quarter. The Hornets bumped that lead to five but the Crusaders cranked up the intensity and took control. An Elle Deegan 3-pointer with three-and-a-half minutes left in the quarter gave Kenny a lead it wouldn’t give back.
On the defensive end, the Crusaders, much like they did in their semifinal romp, locked up the Hornets. After Kylee Trent knocked down a 3-pointer to push Bishop Moore ahead 36-31, the Crusaders locked them down after that. Bishop Moore didn’t score for the next six-and-a-half minutes and Kenny seized control.