Basketball Game Preview: Tampa Catholic Crusaders vs. Cardinal Mooney Cougars

Tampa Catholic is 7-2 against Cardinal Mooney since November of 2015 and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Saturday. The Tampa Catholic Crusaders will head out to take on the Cardinal Mooney Cougars at 4:00 p.m. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.

Tampa Catholic is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Thursday. They walked away with a 55-48 victory over Lakewood. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Crusaders.

Tampa Catholic got their win on the backs of several key players, but it was Ashley Knox out in front who posted 19 points. The match was Knox's third in a row with at least ten points. Another player making a difference was Kimora Green, who put up 13 points.

Meanwhile, Cardinal Mooney had already won ten in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 23.2 points) and they went ahead and made it 11 on Thursday. They really took it to the Jaguars for the full four quarters, racking up a 73-32 victory. Given the Cougars' advantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 11th, while the Jaguars are ranked 225th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Tampa Catholic better focus on containing Riley Martin and Talia Busser as the pair were huge in Cardinal Mooney's win. Martin had 23 points, while Busser earned 16 points. The dominant performance gave Martin a new career-high in points. Sy?Monique Simon was another key player, putting up eight points.

Tampa Catholic is on a roll lately: they've won nine of their last 12 contests, which provided a nice bump to their 17-10 record this season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 53.4 points per game. As for Cardinal Mooney, their win was their ninth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 18-9.

Tampa Catholic suffered a grim 64-40 defeat to Cardinal Mooney in their previous meeting back in February of 2024. Can Tampa Catholic avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.