Mustang Anthony Snow drives through Banning Lewis players during their Jan. 7 game.
This is going to be a season for a lot of learning on the fly. The lesson that the Manitou Springs boys basketball team needs to take away from its two losses last week is to be able to win close games where they’re either tied or have the lead late.
The Mustangs (5-5 overall, 3-2 Tri-Peaks) had a chance to get two key league wins, one over Colorado Springs Christian and the other against Salida, but both times came away with the short end of the stick.
After losing two straight games, coach Brian Vecchio knew that the team has to get better at certain aspects of the game to make sure these aren’t the regularly recurring results.
“This is a group that we have to figure out how to manufacture easy baskets or start to shoot the ball a little bit better,” Vecchio said. “It’s no secret that we haven’t had some long-range success in the season yet.”
Lairden Rogge led the Mustangs with 13 points in the loss to CSCS on Jan. 13 and John Maynard led the effort with 12 points against Salida two days later. Diversity in scoring is always a good thing but, in tough situations, Manitou has yet to establish one player who must be involved when it comes to generating offense.
“It’s one of those things where we’re good enough and have a lot of guys who can score on any given night,” Rogge said. “But we need people to step up and to be vocal leaders and keep everyone at a level head.”
The Mustangs saw their toughest challenge to date on Wednesday, Jan. 19, when they hosted St. Mary’s, but the game’s results were not available at press time.
The focus from here on out has to be closing out winnable games so the Mustangs can stay in the top half of the league standings.
They’ll see a few more competitive games down the road as Ellicott, Rye and Vanguard should provide them with tough battles. Those are all games that Manitou can’t afford to let slip away.
“Come February, we’re going to be a tough team, a better team,” Vecchio said. “These experiences and having lost close games will pay dividends. I know it’s hard for young men to see that but they’re going to continue to get better and have a shot in February.”