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Photo by Claire Johnson
Hoover Basketball
Hoover's team during the Class 7A state championship game between Hoover and Bob Jones on Saturday March 7, 2026, at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Photo by Claire Johnson
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Hoover's Khloe Ford during the Class 7A state championship game between Hoover and Bob Jones on Saturday March 7, 2026, at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Photo by Claire Johnson
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Hoover's Kristen Winston during the Class 7A state championship game between Hoover and Bob Jones on Saturday March 7, 2026, at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Photo by Claire Johnson
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Hoover's Aaliyah Blanchard during the Class 7A state championship game between Hoover and Bob Jones on Saturday March 7, 2026, at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Photo by Claire Johnson
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Hoover's Aaliyah Blanchard during the Class 7A state championship game between Hoover and Bob Jones on Saturday March 7, 2026, at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Photo by Claire Johnson
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Hoover's Kristen Winston during the Class 7A state championship game between Hoover and Bob Jones on Saturday March 7, 2026, at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Photo by Claire Johnson
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Hoover's Khloe Ford during the Class 7A state championship game between Hoover and Bob Jones on Saturday March 7, 2026, at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Photo by Claire Johnson
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Hoover's Londyn Cook during the Class 7A state championship game between Hoover and Bob Jones on Saturday March 7, 2026, at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Photo by Claire Johnson
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Hoover's Londyn Cook during the Class 7A state championship game between Hoover and Bob Jones on Saturday March 7, 2026, at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Photo by Claire Johnson
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Hoover's Aaliyah Blanchard during the Class 7A state championship game between Hoover and Bob Jones on Saturday March 7, 2026, at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Photo by Claire Johnson
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Hoover's Aaliyah Blanchard during the Class 7A state championship game between Hoover and Bob Jones on Saturday March 7, 2026, at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Photo by Claire Johnson
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Hoover's Ava Leonard during the Class 7A state championship game between Hoover and Bob Jones on Saturday March 7, 2026, at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Photo by Claire Johnson
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Hoover's Kristen Winston during the Class 7A state championship game between Hoover and Bob Jones on Saturday March 7, 2026, at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Photo by Claire Johnson
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Hoover's Aaliyah Blanchard during the Class 7A state championship game between Hoover and Bob Jones on Saturday March 7, 2026, at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Photo by Claire Johnson
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Hoover's team during the Class 7A state championship game between Hoover and Bob Jones on Saturday March 7, 2026, at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Photo by Claire Johnson
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Hoover's coach Krystle Johnson during the Class 7A state championship game between Hoover and Bob Jones on Saturday March 7, 2026, at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Photo by Claire Johnson
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Hoover's Aaliyah Blanchard, Kristen Winston and Ava Leonard during the Class 7A state championship game between Hoover and Bob Jones on Saturday March 7, 2026, at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Photo by Claire Johnson
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Hoover's Aaliyah Blanchard during the Class 7A state championship game between Hoover and Bob Jones on Saturday March 7, 2026, at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Photo by Claire Johnson
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Hoover's girls during the Class 7A state championship game between Hoover and Bob Jones on Saturday March 7, 2026, at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Photo by Claire Johnson
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Hoover's Aaliyah Blanchard during the Class 7A state championship game between Hoover and Bob Jones on Saturday March 7, 2026, at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Photo by Claire Johnson
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Hoover's Ava Leonard during the Class 7A state championship game between Hoover and Bob Jones on Saturday March 7, 2026, at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Photo by Claire Johnson
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Hoover's Chasity Johnson during the Class 7A state championship game between Hoover and Bob Jones on Saturday March 7, 2026, at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Photo by Claire Johnson
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Hoover's Kristen Winston. Londyn Cook and Aaliyah Blanchard during the Class 7A state championship game between Hoover and Bob Jones on Saturday March 7, 2026, at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Photo by Claire Johnson
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Hoover's Kristen Winston during the Class 7A state championship game between Hoover and Bob Jones on Saturday March 7, 2026, at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Photo by Claire Johnson
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Hoover's Ava Leonard during the Class 7A state championship game between Hoover and Bob Jones on Saturday March 7, 2026, at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Photo by Claire Johnson
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Hoover's Ava Leonard during the Class 7A state championship game between Hoover and Bob Jones on Saturday March 7, 2026, at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Photo by Claire Johnson
BIRMINGHAM – What is there to say that hasn’t already been said?
Human nature gets bored with the status quo. People begin to dislike people and teams that win too much. They start rooting for the upset.
The Hoover High School girls basketball team enters every season and every game with a target on its back. The Lady Bucs get everyone’s best shot. Upsetting them would be the equivalent of most teams winning a championship.
The people that want to see the Lady Bucs go down will have to wait at least another year.
Hoover continued its run of unbelievable dominance Saturday, winning a sixth straight Class 7A state championship with a 61-43 win over Bob Jones in the AHSAA State Finals at Legacy Arena.
It never gets old for Hoover head coach Krystle Johnson, who is always teeming with emotion at the postgame press conference.
“God is good,” she said. “This is not normal [to win six in a row]. These girls work really hard. When you see how hard they work, you can’t help but to be happy for them.”
Throughout the game, the arena had a sense of inevitability hanging in the air. Onlookers knew what was coming. But what has made Hoover so good and so strong was the fact that Johnson never lets that feeling seep into the locker room.
“That’s a very good Bob Jones team, probably the most talented team in the state. We did an excellent job today. I’m happy for these seniors, to win four straight and I’m happy that we can continue it on.”
This is more than a special player, or a talented class of players. It’s a run of greatness that extends far beyond both of those. Hoover brought back one of its own when it hired Johnson in 2016, and she led the Lady Bucs to a state title her first year leading the program she played for and won its maiden championship in 2001.
Since then and aside from Spain Park winning 7A in 2018 and 2020, no one has slowed down the Lady Bucs’ run. There is no apparent end in sight as long as Johnson is running the program the way she does, instilling discipline and confidence in her players simultaneously.
“They know they have people that doubt them,” Johnson said. “There are people that don’t like us because we win. The phone is about to start ringing, but please know Hoover rebuilds. It’s the same girls in the gym working hard and it’s going to happen again.”
On Saturday evening, the Lady Bucs held a three-point lead, then held Bob Jones to just five points in the second quarter to grab a 29-16 lead at halftime.
As Hoover does, it continued to take care of business in the third quarter, extending the lead to 48-30 heading to the final frame.
Khloe Ford was unstoppable on the night, going for 29 points and 10 rebounds. Her coach calls her the most “dominant” player in the state. Ford was injured last season, so this year’s state championship was even more special to her.
“It was pretty emotional because I really didn’t want to come out of the game,” she said. “I knew it was going to end, but I didn’t really want it to end. Last year I didn’t get to play here, but now that I’m playing here, it feels so good.”
Kristen Winston, a freshman guard with SEC offers already, finished with 13 points, nine rebounds, four assists and four steals. Senior Aaliyah Blanchard posted nine points in her final contest.
This is the fourth state championship team under Johnson that has suffered a singular loss in the season. This season, the Lady Bucs lost their first game of the year to Madison Central out of Mississippi, then proceeded to roll off 35 consecutive wins to finish off a sixth straight triumph.
“We started off the season saying we wanted to go undefeated and lost the very first game of the season,” Johnson said. “What it did for us is give us glimpse into how bad we could be, and from that point forward, we said this is not how we play basketball.”
Ford, Blanchard, Chasity Johnson, Kayla Maxwell and Akeera Sparks will conclude their time at Hoover knowing nothing other than basking in the glow of a state championship.
“I love this team so much,” Blanchard said. “We have so many memories built within the team and with past teammates and to have people watching us who built the legacy that was here before us. It’s been a blessing to play under the Hoover name.”
Ford and Blanchard are two of the team’s five seniors this year. Their loss will be felt significantly, but freshman Kristen Winston seems more than ready to take the torch and be the next superstar to wear the Hoover uniform.
Like Johnson said, Hoover rebuilds.
“For sure,” Johnson said, when asked if Winston was ready to have the torch passed to her. “She’s not alone either. People need to know that.”
It doesn’t sound like the story is finished just yet.
