Resurgent Nova girls top Aquinas to win first BCAA Big 8 title since 2018
Things have been a little on the lean side for head coach Jason Hively and the Nova girls basketball team since playing in three state championship games between 2009 and 2018.
But beginning last year when they made the regional finals for the first time in six years (losing to Miami Southridge), one of the marquee programs in Broward County has been on a journey back to prominence.
The Titans took another big step on Saturday night when, led by senior guard and FAU commit Jaelynn Housey, they battled their way to a 56-52 victory over St. Thomas Aquinas, the No. 1 team in Class 6A, to capture the BCAA Big 8 championship at Fort Lauderdale High. It marked Nova’s fourth Big 8 title, but first since 2018.
Housey led all scorers, finishing with 22 points and hoisted the Marcia Pinder Trophy when the game was over after being voted the championship game MVP.
The most important of those 22 points came with five seconds left when she went to the free throw line and her team clinging to a two point lead. Housey dropped both free throws to lock up the win for the Titans who won the Big 8 title for the fourth time while improving to 19-4 on the season.
“This isn’t just a one-day thing. This is a team thing, and we plan on keeping this going,” said Housey, who also recorded 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals on the night. “Something like this tonight gets us ready for the competition that’s coming up. We feel we have what it takes to make it back to states, we just need to keep our foot on the gas and keep this going. We’ve got the goods to get all the way to Jacksonville.”
Housey’s biggest play of the night didn’t even involve scoring. Down by two, the Raiders were trying to tie the game up and had the ball out of bounds under their own basket with 7 seconds left when Housey managed to steal the inbounds pass in the corner.
She got fouled and went to the line to make her game-clinching free throws.
“She’s a special kid,” Hively said. “It makes the coaching look a lot easier with her out on the floor but as they say, that’s why she gets paid the big bucks (chuckling) and that kid shows up every day and every night and been doing her whole career and is the primary reason we won this thing tonight.”
The game was close the entire way with neither team leading by more than four points until the Titans used a mini 6-1 spurt early in the fourth quarter to open up a 47-39 lead. Nova still led 51-43 when the Raiders (15-8), who won four consecutive state titles from 2021 to 2024, made a late push.
Led by Isabella Sangha, a Notre Dame commit (for both basketball and volleyball) who had 21 points, the Raiders were poised to tie the game when she got fouled with 36 seconds left and trailing 53-51. Sangha made the first free throw but missed the second.
Nova got the rebound and Housey, after getting fouled, went to the line with 23 seconds left but could only make one of two free throws leaving Nova up by two.
Aquinas’ London Thomas, who finished with 16 points, drove the lane with 10 seconds left for a driving contested layup that bounced off the iron. A scramble for the rebound went off a Nova player giving St. Thomas the ball out of bounds before Housey made her big steal.
Not lost on Hively is that the last time Nova won the Big 8 title was the last time he took his team to the state final four. But the likelihood is that the Titans might face St. Thomas again (both are in Region 4-6A) in the regional playoffs.
“I think we have a team that’s built to get there,” said Hively, who now in his 21st year and the longest tenured girls basketball coach in Broward. “This is our most complete group we’ve had since 2018. Playing in a game like this, it comes at a perfect time because it really does get you ready for the upcoming regional playoffs. I’ve always thought the BCAA Big Eight is one of the best tournaments you could always win so we’ll celebrate tonight and then get ready for districts next week.”