Mustangs face tall challenge in state semifinals

Cutting down the nets at its home gym Feb. 24 following the regional championship was a nice moment, but the Lakewood Ranch boys basketball team has much bigger goals.

The Mustangs are not yet the kind the kind of champions they want to be. The players have been dreaming about an 8A state championship since their freshman year.

Two more wins stand in the way of that goal after the Mustangs downed St. Petersburg 73-68 in the regional title game. St. Petersburg eliminated the Mustangs in the regional a year ago.

Lakewood Ranch coach Jeremy Schiller said he will continue to run practice like any other week of the season. Monday and Tuesday, the team focuses on itself, fixing little details and refining fundamentals. Wednesday, the team looks at film and game-plans specifically for the next opponent, in this case Sickles High School out of Tampa. Thursday is a final tune-up before Friday’s semifinal.

The Gryphons rely heavily on their starters. They did not make a substitution in their first-round game against Kathleen for 11 minutes, and that was only because of foul trouble. Subsequent games have followed a similar formula, though sixth-man Andrew Oquendo has proven to be a solid 3-point shooter. The Mustangs have superior depth, which is one of the biggest reasons for their success, as demonstrated in the foul-heavy win against St. Petersburg.

However, Sickles will have a decided height advantage. The Gryphons have 10 players 6-foot-3 or taller. The Mustangs have two. Thankfully for Lakewood Ranch, coach Jeremy Schiller knew this dynamic would pop up in the playoffs.

He purposefully scheduled taller teams during the regular season to get his team prepared. Height disadvantage did not seem to phase Schiller's players. When they played Mariner, a team with 6-foot-8 and 6-foot-9 players,  the Mustangs won by seven.

“We’re not scared,” Schiller said. “It’s a dynamic (height), but we’re not intimidated by it.”

Schiller said the Mustangs' key to winning a state title is to keep being themselves.

Senior Sam Hester said as long as the Mustangs play together as a unit, and gives everything they have, they will be fine. Senior Devin Twenty preached similar beliefs. Twenty also shared that the Mustangs didn't think they would reach the Final Four ... they knew.

“We said if we played hard and did every single thing in our power to get there, we could do it,” Twenty said. “That's what we did.”

The Mustangs did get to enjoy the accomplishment of making the Final Four.

While the buzzer sounded on St. Petersburg’s season, the Mustangs jumped for joy into each other’s arms. Hester was hoarse while answering questions and accepting congratulations from friends and family. Twenty could not stop beaming.

Schiller said that he hopes the Lakewood Ranch community comes out to see the games in Lakeland. The school is calling for a White-Out in the crowd for the semifinal against Sickles.

If the Mustangs win that game, they will play either Lincoln or Palm Beach Lakes at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday for the championship.