MaxPreps Florida Team of the Week: Freedom girls basketball

It was an excruciatingly tough loss to be sure.

Freedom (Tampa) girls basketball team lost 79-73 last season in the state 7A semifinals to eventual champion Buchholz (Gainesville) to complete a 25-4 season.

Rather than mope, the Patriots have shown more resolve while streaking to a 16-3 start of the 2013-14 campaign.

Under coach Laurie Pacholke, Freedom has fought back from three losses in early December to win eight straight, including three games last week.

For their response to the losing streak and overall good play, the Patriots are the MaxPreps Florida Team of the Week, presented by the Florida National Guard.

"We have been staying the course," said Pacholke. "We were inexperienced coming into this season, so our goal has been to get better everyday. We know that we will be fine down the stretch if we keep working hard each day and continue to get better. Things will fall into place."

The Patriots have rebounded from last year's heartbreaking defeat and the loss of leading scorer Faith Woodard (22.0 points per game), now a freshman at Georgetown, thanks largely to the remarkable play of 5-foot-10 junior point guard Taylor Emery and the fast development of five freshmen.

Emery is averaging 26.3 points per game and has had games of 41, 36, 32 and 31 points.

"(Emery) is a big guard and is able to score in so many different ways," said Pacholke. "She has the best mid-range game I've seen in a high school kid in a long time. Taylor is able to create a lot defensively, which leads to layups. We are very fortunate to have a kid like her. She has taken on the leadership role and knows that she needs to bring it every game."

The Patriots' only other double-digit scorer is sophomore Nari Garner (13.4), though freshman Megan Clark is averaging 8.3 and junior Bianca Igwe has added 7.0 per contest.

Since Pacholke arrived in 2009-10, the Patriots have hovered around the 20-win mark, going 19-6, 20-6 and 18-11 before going 25-4 last season.

Though Freedom averages 62.6 points per game, Pacholke is more of a stickler on the defensive end, where the Patriots allow just 37.6. Five times they've allowed 20 points or less.

Freedom next plays state powerhouse Steinbrenner (Lutz) (20-3) on Friday.

"Last year our team made it to the state semifinals, so it would be cool to get there again and even one step further and get to the state championship," said Pacholke. "We are a really young team, so we are taking it one game at a time. Our goal is to come in and work hard everyday and we'll see how far we can go."

MaxPreps editorial assistant Kirstin Beal contributed to this report.