Southeast girls; Cardinal Mooney boys earn top 10 rankings

The Southeast High girls and Cardinal Mooney boys were the only area teams to earn a spot in the top 10 of their respective classes in the latest FABC-Source Hoops poll released on Tuesday.

Southeast (13-3) is ranked eighth in the Class 5A poll, but getting out of the district is going to be a tough task even for a team as talented as the Seminoles.

Three teams from 5A-12 are ranked in the top 10 in the 5A poll. Along with Southeast, St. Petersburg Lakewood (13-3) is fifth  and Gulfport Boca Ciega (13-5) is ninth.

Southeast defeated Boca Ciegao 55-40 earlier in the year. The Seminoles losses are to state ranked teams: 52-47 to Lakewood; 76-60 to Ft. Myers Dunbar, ranked third in 3A and 58-52 to Leesburg, (#8 in 6A).

Cardinal Mooney (14-1) is ranked 8th in Class 3A. The Cougars have some impressive notches on their belt with victories over Fort Myers (#8 in 6A), Tampa Sickles (#10 in 6A) and Miami Carol City, which is 10th in 8A.

Cardinal Mooney looks to have a good chance of making it out of its region. The Cougars are the highet ranked team in Class 3A-Region 3, two spots head of #10 Community School of Naples (14-3).

Mooney and Braden River advance to Suncoast semifinals

Cardinal Mooney has proved to be a heart-throbbing Giant Killer after two games of the Suncoast Holiday tournament at Sarasota Riverview High School.

The Cougars notched their second straight victory over a highly touted foe when it came from behind to defeat Tampa Sickles 54-50 in second round action Thursday to advance to the semifinals.

Braden River also earned a ticket to the round of four, but did it in convincing fashion with a 50-28 rout over South Fort Myers.

Braden River's Trevon Young and Cardinal Mooney sophomore Antonio Blakeney continued to show they are among the top players in the area, perhaps the two best.

Brad Christian gets top seed after Mooney slammed for violations

The Cardinal Mooney boys basketball team will be missing its star player and a whole lot of victories when the Class 3A-District 10 boys basketball tournament gets underway on Tuesday.

Michael Colby, FHSAA Director of Compliance, said Mooney used players that were deemed ineligible because they violated recruiting rules.

One of those players is freshman phenom Antonio Blakeney, the Cougars leading scorer and best player. Also declared ineligible was freshman Justin Najmy and some players off the Mooney JV team. The team has to forfeit all the games those two played in, the FHSAA said.

Blakeney attended Booker Middle School where he was a prolific scorer and led the team to the Sarasota County Middle School championship.

Colby said the players played on a club team that was coached by a person connected with the Cardinal Mooney basketball program and then followed him to the school, which is considered recruiting.

Colby said his organization received an anonymous tip about a possible violation of FHSAA rules and asked school officials at Cardinal Mooney to look into it.

"They found improprieties and then self reported it and took action," Colby said. "If a player is on a travel ball, club team or AAU team and then follows that coach to the school where the coach has contact with it's a violation of our rules and is considered recruiting. They are ineligible for the rest of the season, but can play next year."

Colby said the players have until Thursday to file an appeal, but the hearing would not be held until March when the season would be over. Cardinal Mooney Athletic Director Bill Donivan would not respond to any questions.

The ruling means Bradenton Christian becomes the top seed in the the three team district tournament, which is being held at Cardinal Mooney.

Out-Of-Door-Academy plays Cardinal Mooney on Tuesday and the winner faces Bradenton Christian Friday night in the district championship game.