Manitou Springs player Lairdon Rogge takes aim at the basket despite the St. Mary’s player during their Jan. 19 game.
No matter the sport, no matter the day, Manitou Springs always finds a way to perform at its best when St. Mary’s comes to town. The Pirates boys basketball team is seen as a state championship contender this season, but the Mustangs didn’t care.
They eventually lost the Jan. 19 game 72-53, but had the Pirates on the ropes early.
“It was a good game for us,” Ethan Boren said. “It was tough, they have quite possibly the (Class) 3A player of the year (Sam Howery) and it’s never easy when you’re playing against a player of that caliber.”
The Mustangs (6-6 overall, 4-3 Tri-Peaks) held Howery to 23 points, five points below his season average at the time.
They also put together a solid offensive performance of their own. Andrew Rhodes scored a team-high 17 points, Lairden Rogge added 11, John Maynard scored nine and Boren scored eight.
The Mustangs’ energy really helped them compete against the Pirates, and that energy carried over to a 73-51 defeat of Ellicott on Jan. 21. Three Mustangs scored in double figures as Maynard led with 20 while Boren and Anthony Snow each had 12.
With an important slate of Tri-Peaks games coming up, the jolt that the Mustangs appear to have gotten in the Pirates game could spark a run of wins that the team badly needs.
“If we use that same effort and same attitude that we used against St. Mary’s every night, we’re going to win a lot more games than we’ll lose,” coach Brian Vecchio said. “I told them that our goal is seven wins in a row.”
The Mustangs are back on the floor Thursday, Jan. 27, when they host the Vanguard School. They play three of their final five Tri-Peaks games at home.