The Manitou Springs boys basketball team learned a lesson last week that perhaps no team wants to learn, but can benefit from. It’s possible to take a long road trip, not play well and still come away with a win. 

On Feb. 4, they looked every bit like a team that made a three-hour bus trip to Lamar as they started a little sluggish, scoring just nine points in the first quarter. Things didn’t improve all that quickly as they made just one field goal in the second quarter.

But the Mustangs still went into halftime with a five-point lead.

They fared much better in the second half as Andrew Rhodes knocked down a few shots and ended his day scoring a team-high 14 points. The Mustangs got a 46-27 win, but it wasn’t pretty.

“It’s a big confidence booster knowing we can play bad and still come out with a win,” Rhodes said. “It helps us to know that we can still do what we’re trying to accomplish.”

A quick turnaround and another bus ride later and the Mustangs looked like a completely different team. On Feb. 5 in Rye (rescheduled from Feb. 12), Rhodes caught fire from the 3-point line, making six of them en route to scoring 22 points.

Lairden Rogge, John Maynard and Anthony Snow also scored in double figures as the Mustangs (9-7 overall, 6-4 Tri-Peaks) rolled to a 76-47 win over the Thunderbolts.

“We’ve talked about being road warriors,” coach Brian Vecchio said. “We got home at about 12:30 (a.m. on Saturday) and had a quick turnaround and saw them play maybe one of their best games of the year.”

The Mustangs had hoped to rattle off seven wins in a row, but fell to Buena Vista 54-40 on Tuesday, Feb. 8.

Manitou is back at home Thursday, Feb. 10, against The Classical Academy and then on Monday, Feb. 14, against Florence. The team hasn’t lost sight of needing to finish strong against their league opponents to get a good seed for the district tournament.

“We’re just focused on game-by-game improvement and taking care of business one game at a time,” Vecchio said. “We’re not looking too far forward.”