Bradenton Christian girls are ranked No. 1, but still an unknown

Janelle Hochstetler is careful to temper some of the praise Bradenton Christian naturally has received during this breakthrough girls basketball season. The Panthers have blown away their district opponents, blown past 20 wins and held tight to the top ranking in their classification this year.

The 30.1-point average margin of victory has not come without its flaws, the BCS head coach said. Bradenton Christian’s half-court offense can be a mess sometimes, and Hochstetler even has some of her players mentioning the relative lack of challenges the Panthers’ schedule provided.

The postseason is now upon teams — Bradenton Christian will begin play in the Class 3A-District 5 tournament Tuesday at Out-of-Door Academy against either Sarasota Christian or Out-of-Door — and Hochstetler may have just found her best indication that Bradenton Christian’s hype is real: A four-point overtime win against IMG Academy on Thursday.

“The timing has worked for us, and they’re starting to figure out how to play as a team and implement some different structure that we put in last year,” Hochstetler said. “It’s gotten a little bit easier, and they’ve gained confidence in it.”

The Panthers (24-1) are on a short list of state championship contenders from Manatee County this winter. If the Florida Association of Basketball Coaches/Source Hoops poll is to be believed, BCS is the favorite in Class 3A as the No. 1 team in the latest rankings. A win Tuesday would guarantee Bradenton Christian’s spot in the Class 3A-Region 2 playoffs a week later, starting its path to a 3A final.

Ascension has come rapidly for Bradenton Christian during Hochstetler’s second season as head coach. The 2015-16 campaign began with promise and double-digit wins, only to flame out with a first-round upset loss in the district championship against the Blazers.

It was an incomplete season both with its ending and its beginning. Hochstetler joined the program in July 2015, leaving Bradenton Christian without a significant summer program.

“Last year we kind of came unprepared,” said forward Bailey Sikkema, one of the Panthers’ leading scorers each of the last two seasons. “We didn’t really know what Hoss was going to do or what she was like, but this year we were like, OK, we kind of know what she’s about and she has her best interest for us.”

Bradenton Christian played about 15 games as a full team during the summer at a pair of camps. Paired with consistent practices, Bradenton Christian entered the 2016-17 season ready to build on the up-tempo foundation Hochstetler established the previous season.

Hochstetler bases everything around turnovers. On offense, the objective is to pounce on turnovers and score in the open floor. On defense, a full-court press causes the turnovers that make the offense function.

During Hochstetler’s first season, the Panthers focused on the latter. Their goal was to run when turnovers presented themselves, not necessarily create the turnovers themselves. A full summer together and the addition of transfer guard Sophie Giardina, who played in a similar system at Southeast last season, elevated BCS to the point where it can beat teams like IMG, which is among the top 50 teams in Florida, according to MaxPreps.com’s computer rankings.

“We’ve been playing a lot better as we’ve gone throughout the season,” Giardina said.

The program is ahead of schedule. Hochstetler figured Year 3 was a logical moment to take a leap — the Panthers had two seniors last year and two again this season.

Bradenton Christian players will admit they don’t quite know what they are capable of during the coming weeks. MaxPreps’ computer rankings peg Bradenton Christian as a top-five team in its classification, too, but a run through the postseason will be uncharted territory for this group of Panthers.

“We’re all kind of surprised and we’re all kind of nervous,” Sikkema said. “We want to keep a good record, so we’re just running our butts off and trying to keep it up.”

This story was originally published January 29, 2017 at 11:49 PM with the headline "Bradenton Christian girls are ranked No. 1, but still an unknown."