Quick start propels Cardinal Mooney

LAKELAND — If the Cardinal Mooney Catholic girls basketball team had nerves playing on a big stage in its first State Final 4, they quickly were erased with a huge first quarter.

The Cougars rode a tremendous start to a 47-32 victory over Oviedo The Master’s Academy in a Class 3A state semifinal Wednesday at RP Funding Center.

Cardinal Mooney will play for the first girls basketball state title in program history at 4:30 p.m. Friday against Miami Country Day, a 66-44 winner over Tampa Brooks DeBartolo, in Lakeland.

“It’s starting to sink in,” Cougars sophomore guard Olivia Davis said.

Cardinal Mooney (20-8) dug in defensively early and the offense followed.

The Cougars not only got four of their five starters into the scoring column in the first quarter, they also threw a blanket on the usually sharp-shooting Eagles.

“It’s never good to get off to a bad start,” The Master's Academy coach Luke Doyle said. “That was a big factor. It was hard to get out of that hole. It’s tough to overcome.”

Master’s Academy went 0-for-9 from the field in the first quarter, including 0-for-4 from beyond the arc, as Cardinal Mooney stormed out to a 15-1 lead after the first eight minutes.

“It’s a factor. We’ve been doing that. We’re pretty good at getting out of the gates and we did today,” Cougars coach Rico Antonio said. “Typically, we would score some points, but the reverse took place. That’s pretty significant.”

Cardinal Mooney also was bolstered by the return of 6-foot-4 center Jordyn Byrd, who missed the previous two games with an ankle injury.

The Cougars' early plan was to dump the ball inside to Byrd, who had at least a four-inch height advantage over any Eagle defener.

“Oh yeah, we knew no big girl in the state could guard Jordyn,” Davis said. “So we were like get her going early, get her confidence going.”

Byrd, who admitted a little discomfort with her ankle, scored two straight baskets during a 12-0 run to close the first quarter.

“I always have confidence in myself,’ Byrd said. “When I get the ball, my first look is to score and then kick out. I really didn’t kick out much today because a lot of the time I had opportunities.”

That shed the nerves Byrd always experiences at the start of games.

“Yeah, I was really nervous,” the sophomore said. “I tried not to show it, but I was really nervous. I’m nervous before every game, but today I was really nervous. After a couple of points, the nerves kinda kick out. I’m into the game, not thinking about I still have to play.”

Despite the huge early advantage, the Cougars knew they had three quarters remaining. 

“It definitely gives us a big confidence booster,” Davis said. “We knew as a good team they were going to come back from that. We had to keep our foot on the gas and not let the quick start affect us at all, not let it get to our heads.”

Down 21-6 midway through the second quarter, Master’s Academy made its only run of the game. 

The Eagles scored the final seven points of the first half to close within 21-13. 

“Basketball is a game of runs,” Antonio said. “We talked about it all year. It’s about maintaining your composure at that point in time. I addressed that with the girls at halftime. We had a little lapse at the end of the second quarter. I told them they’re going to come out and score in the third quarter. They’ve got a lot of good shooters. You can only contain them for so long. We just had to maintain, keep our composure and keep pushing through.”

Not only did the Eagles get a 3-pointer from Kiara Harris to open the second half, the Cougars picked up three fouls in the first 59 seconds of the third quarter. 

“Absolutely it was a concern of ours,” Antonio said.

The Cougars, who do not have a senior on their roster, responded with six straight points and outscored the Eagles, 26-16, the rest of the game.

“They played great defense,” Doyle said of Cardinal Mooney. “They’re a good team, well-coached. I’ve got nothing but good things to say about them. I just think looks we usually get didn’t drop tonight. It’s just a bad day to have a bad day.”

Byrd finished with a game-high 15 points and 12 rebounds. Davis dropped in 14 points on 6-for-10 shooting and chipped in with nine rebounds, as Cardinal Mooney had 24 points in the pain, 10 on second chances, and 16 off turnovers.

“We had to get a little bit adjusted to it, same as every other building,” Davis said of the spacious RP Funding Center court.

Madison Smithers contributed 10 points. Freshman Kennedy McClain gave the Cougars a spark early and ended with six points. Natalie Mercadante had three rebounds and three assists to go along with her two points.

“We’ve been playing very, very unselfish in the past five, six weeks,” Antonio said. “We’ve been doing a very good job of getting involved.”