Hoover's Austin Dudley (15) celebrates the team's win during the Hoover vs. Huntsville game at the 7A Regional Championship at Jacksonville State on Feb. 20, 2025. Photo by Savannah Schmidt.
The final 56 high school basketball teams left standing are descending upon Birmingham this week as part of the AHSAA State Finals.
Two of those hail from Hoover High School, as the boys and girls teams look to continue their stranglehold on Class 7A trophies this week.
The Hoover girls have won four consecutive state titles, and the boys have won the last two championships.
In order to replicate the sweep for the third straight year, they will have to win two games this week at Legacy Arena.
Hoover’s boys and girls will take the court Thursday in the semifinals against Central-Phenix City. Hoover won the Northeast Regional and Central won the Central Regional. The girls play at noon, followed by the boys at 1:30 p.m.
In the opposite semifinals, on the girls side, Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa and Daphne play at 9 a.m. The other boys semifinal is Florence vs. Fairhope at 10:30 a.m.
At the state tournament last year, Hoover’s Khloe Ford was a bright star, winning tournament MVP honors. But the Lady Bucs have spent much of this season without her due to injury, and the winning has continued.
“This team has been able to get back to this stage because they work hard,” Hoover girls coach Krystle Johnson said. “We ask a lot of the players in our program and when one goes down, it’s next man up.”
To get past Central, Johnson said the Lady Bucs will have to “defend the perimeter, protect the paint, box out and limit their transition baskets.” On the offensive side of the floor, they will need to “be strong when going to the basket and don’t settle for outside shots.”
Despite having won the last four state titles, Johnson said this year’s final four experience will be a relatively fresh one for her team with so many players in enhanced roles.
“They may be experienced in being at Legacy, but the nerves will still be there,” she said. “The stakes are high, so experience can help to calm a player down quicker, but at the end of the day, it’s just basketball.”
Hoover’s boys have much of the same team as last year, so the experience at this stage should be a benefit.
“The stage is bigger and there will be more people in the crowd than most nights, but experienced teams understand that once the ball is tossed up at the center circle, it is the same game that we have played 33 times this year,” Hoover boys coach Scott Ware said.
Hoover and Central will be squaring off in the final four for the third straight year. The two teams met in the final in 2023 and the semifinals last year. Central is coached by Charles Burkett, who led the Hoover program with Ware as an assistant for many years.
The Bucs are riding a 43-game winning streak, dating back to last year. They extended that with their 63-60 victory over Huntsville in the regional final at Jacksonville State, one of the most anticipated matchups of the season statewide.
“Our guys have a great belief in themselves and their abilities,” Ware said. “We stayed the course and never wavered from what the team was trying to accomplish. It was the most important game of the year because it was the next game. Now, the most important game is on Thursday against Central.”
The 7A championship games are set for Saturday afternoon, with the girls tipping off at 4 p.m. and the boys going at 5:45 p.m.
Fans are encouraged to purchase tickets at the door, but they can also be purchased ahead of time.
More information on the AHSAA State Finals can be found at this link.
