A season of adversity prepares Lakewood Ranch for underdog role in state playoffs
Lakewood Ranch High knows what to expect this time of season.
The Mustangs head into Thursday’s 7 p.m. road game against Wharton High in a Class 7A-Region 2 quarterfinal with the experience that comes with making five consecutive regional tournaments, which is valuable as they make what they hope is another deep playoff run.
“I think (the experience) creates a ton of belief,” Mustangs coach Jeremy Schiller said. “When we get in tough situations, our guys just have a ton of experience, which most schools that are still alive in the playoffs now can’t duplicate. I think that experience is so valuable.”
The Mustangs qualified for the regional tournament despite a significant amount of adversity.
Senior Keon Buckley led the team in scoring his sophomore and junior seasons but isn’t playing this season because of an undisclosed reason. The team also lost senior Christian Shaneyfelt, who plans to play at Rollins College next season, in January to a season-ending knee injury.
Although the Mustangs have gone 18-7 this season without Buckley and are 7-2 after losing Shaneyfelt, those two players would’ve certainly helped them in the playoffs.
“Obviously, we all have preferences,” Schiller said. “We have preferences on health and having a complete roster and doing those things. But at the end of the day, those are out of our control.
“This becomes a great lessons for our kids for life that no matter what adversity is in front of them they have to lock in and do the best they can and not get lost in whatever they’re unhappy about and just do their job. This group has been so resilient when dealt with an unbelievable amount of adversity this year. Our kids have been fighting and finding ways to win.”
The sixth-seeded Mustangs will be an underdog in the regional tournament, starting with their first-round game against the third-seeded Wharton. Also in their regional tournament is top-seeded Sarasota Riverview, which defeated the Mustangs 70-54 in the Class 7A-District 8 tournament championship game last week.
“We’ll definitely use the underdog mentality to our advantage,” Mustangs senior Christian Perez said. “Teams might overlook us, saying, ‘Oh, they’re not like how they used to be, they’re not No. 1.’ We’ll definitely just come out there and bring the fight to them right away.”
The Mustangs, ranked No. 14 in Class 7A, can rely on their being tested throughout the regular season. They played a challenging schedule that included wins against Lakeland Santa Fe (No. 1 in Class 3A), Sarasota Riverview (No. 9 in Class 7A) and St. Petersburg Lakewood (No. 7 in Class 4A) and close losses to Apopka (No. 11 in Class 7A) and Seminole (No. 8 in Class 7A).
The Mustangs also have last year’s run to the state championship game to draw upon. They know what it takes to be playing into early March and in the final game of the season.
“(The experience) definitely prepares you for how hard you have to play on every single play,” Perez said. “You can’t take any possessions off. You just have to do whatever it takes to win. All you need to do is be one point better than the other team that game.”