Cougars girls basketball welcomes all challengers

Last year belongs in the past. 

That's the motto Cardinal Mooney High girls basketball coach Rico Antonio is telling his team to follow. In 2020, the Cougars turned their potential into reality and finished 20-9, including an eight-game win streak that landed them in the Florida High School Athletic Association Class 3A championship game in Lakeland. Cardinal Mooney would lose 59-34 to Miami Country Day School, a girls basketball dynasty that has won seven state titles in eight years, but the Cougars proved to people across the state that the school should be taken as a threat. 

But none of that happened in the 2021-2022 season and that's all that matters to Antonio, who wants his players with their eyes on the future. Antonio said this year's team will have to go through the same trials that last year's team did in order to get back to Lakeland. That's why the coach scheduled a slew of tough opponents early in the year and late in the year, to make sure that the Cougars don't get complacent.

Through nine games, the Cougars have responded as well as Antonio could have hoped. Cardinal Mooney is 8-1, the lone loss coming in the team's season opener against Mount Paran Christian (Kennesaw, Georgia), 49-29, in the Inside Exposure Thanksgiving Classic tournament held Nov. 22-24 in Jacksonville. The Cougars beat two other teams from Georgia in that event and since then have looked overpowering against Florida teams. MaxPreps ranks the Cougars as the eighth-best team in Florida (all classifications) and the No. 1 team in Class 3A. 

"This year we have been able to take people's punches and handle the adversity against good teams," Antonio said. "We have some girls on the team whose will to win is contagious. It's tough to beat. We also have more depth this year, which helps."

The team has just two seniors, point guard Natalie Mercadante and forward Jasmine Scurry, which means younger players have to lead as well. Antonio pointed out junior guard Olivia Davis and junior forward Jordyn Byrd as players who have taken on more responsibility on and off the court. Both Davis and Byrd were already statistical leaders last season, averaging 15.5 and 14.7 points per game respectively, but this year both players have stepped things up in various ways. To wit: In the first half of a road game against Sarasota High on Dec. 18, Davis hit a layup while getting fouled and let out a yell — not of pain, but of dominance. It was loud enough to make the baseline official jump in surprise while also firing up her team. The Cougars are confident in themselves because their leaders are. When a team's top players refuse to lose, that team typically does well. 

"We're still a young team, believe it or not," Antonio said. "They need to be pushed sometimes and Olivia (Davis), she pushes them. It's a good dynamic." 

The Sarasota game ended 70-27; it was a showcase for how well Cardinal Mooney shoots the ball but also how stifling their defense can be. The Cougars spread the ball around, so Davis didn't come close to her 19.6 points per game average, but Byrd scored 14. The 6-foot-4 Byrd, who is committed to Texas for volleyball, may not be as intense as Davis, but she's steady, giving the team a consistent post presence on offense and defense and providing encouragement. 

Freshman Kali Barrett led the team with 16. Barrett, a forward, and the team's other freshman — guard Sy'monique Simon — have provided the team with capable role players who have the ability to step into bigger roles if needed. That's something the Cougars didn't have in 2020 and what could get them over the hump in the state tournament. 

"We are sharing the ball well," Barrett said. "We're always looking for each other and we have each other's backs out there. I think we have to keep doing those things, even more than we are now. We have the talent to reach the finals if we do." 

Perhaps the most impressive accomplishment of the team's season came Dec. 10. The Cougars hosted South Fort Myers, a Class 5A school which entered the game 8-0 and features junior point guard Addison Potts, a Purdue commit. Cardinal Mooney scored the first seven points of the game and would never trail on the way to a 58-43 win. Potts was held to 15 points; Davis led the Cougars with 21. 

Or maybe the most impressive game of the season came a few days earlier, Nov. 30, when the Cougars became the first team to beat Clearwater High (8-2) at home since January 2019. Cardinal Mooney knocked off the Tornadoes 54-51. The fact that it's hard to pinpoint the team's best moment of the first half of the season is a testament to all it has accomplished. 

It is far from done, too. When the team returns from the winter sports holiday break, the difficulty of its schedule will ramp back up. The team plays in the Tampa Bay Christmas Invitational, full of top teams from Florida and elsewhere, starting Dec. 29 and will travel to play the No. 2 ranked team in Class 3A, Brooks DeBartolo Collegiate High, in a road contest on Jan. 7. The Phoenix nearly beat undefeated Class 7A school Riverview High on the road Nov. 30, losing 53-50 in overtime, and will not make things easy for the Cougars. 

That's great news for Antonio, who wants his team to give its all every time it takes the court. There's only one thing on the mind of the program and that is getting back to Lakeland in March. 

"We're going to be challenged and I can't wait to see how we respond," Antonio said.