Tampa Catholic Girls Basketball Cruises to Regional Final

Tampa Catholic High School's girls basketball team is set to play the winner of Bishop Verot (Fort Myers) and Bradenton Southeast on Saturday after defeating Fort Meade on Tuesday night.

The Crusaders cruised to their 22nd straight victory by jumping all over the Lady Miners from the opening tip off. In the first half, Tampa Catholic found themselves with open shots from three point range that they were able to knock down and create a 42-22 halftime lead.

"We really didn't know anything about this team so we just wanted to come out, be aggressive and make shots," forward Micah Kroll said. "We're just playing our hearts out right now and looking to get back to the state tournament with a chance to win it."

The Crusaders got 63 of their 73 points from starters Meghan Keough (23 points), Kroll (17), Kai Jones (12) and Brittany Betts (11). It's the strength of their starting five that coach Nancy Kroll believes will carry the team to the state tournament in Lakeland.

"Defensively we had a great night and we had three players making long range shots," Kroll said. "That's what my starters do. We played our style of basketball tonight. It's our gym, we made them play how we wanted them to."

Tampa Catholic will face the winner of Bishop Verot and Bradenton Southeast. The Crusaders have a history with Verot, a school they played on their way to the state tournament last year and beat.

"We've been hearing a lot about them," Micah Kroll said. "Hopefully we can get some tape on them and be able to prepare a little bit better. They were tough last season and they returned four starters from last year so it should be a tough game. From what I hear they play a lot like us."