The Lions are on the prowl and are hunting for a state title. Four months of high school basketball is in the books and it's win-or-go-home season.
First Baptist Academy is the last team standing in Collier County and is preparing for a big Final Four matchup.
"Oh, we're very excited," said FBA junior Jayden Petit. "We've been working on this the whole year really."
FBA is looking to go further than ever before...and shush the doubters.
"A lot of people kind of wrote us off as not being one of the better teams in Southwest Florida," said FBA head boys' basketball coach Scott Stewart.
"Other teams see us and they think, 'Oh, it's just FBA, they're not going to be very good,'" said FBA senior Andrew Azunque.
But here they are, setting a program record for most wins in a season -- currently 28-2. At the beginning of the year, the Lions wrote down five goals.
"Private Eight championship," Stewart said. "District championship, 20-win season, set the record for the highest wins and one season, and winning the state championship."
So with four checked off the list, they're eighty percent of the way there.
"We're very persistent," said Petit. "What we do, we come out here, work hard every day."
They credit their success this year to that tenacious mindset and their defensive prowess.
"Our defense is phenomenal," said Azunque. "We don't have insane size, so we all have to talk, and get in different positions."
The Lions are locked in for the next challenge, taking on the back-to-back reigning champs — Riviera Prep out of Miami.
"Very good team, number one team in the state in our classification," said Stewart. "So facing the giants is kind of the Cinderella story here for us. But that's kind of how we kind of felt all year. So we just took that approach in every game and so it's kind of similar in this story as well. It's just to go out there, compete, play our best to give God the glory and see what happens."
"We're all playing with a chip on our shoulder," said Azunque. "We have really nothing to lose. It just takes off all the pressure from us and just go out and play our best game."
A win would advance the Lions to their first-ever state championship appearance.
"I just think Southwest Florida will be very proud of us if we can make a run and do our very best to represent the 239 area," said Stewart.
First Baptist Academy and Riviera Prep play at 3 p.m. on Thursday, February 27.