Playing in front of home fans for the first time all year, the Manitou Springs boys basketball team put on a show.
The Mustangs rolled to a 57-41 win over Rocky Ford on Dec. 17. It was a performance that the team needed to put the bad taste of a couple losses at the University Tournament behind them.
“A win like this is huge,” coach Nick Nunley said. “It just reaffirms all the work we’ve put in to this point. Just because we had two less than stellar games doesn’t mean we just cut bait and call it a season.”
Quite the opposite, actually. The Mustangs (4-2 overall) found a bit of a winning formula as they continue to emphasize play on the defensive side of the ball. That tone started early as Jon Polizzi locked in on Isaiah Vazquez-Gallegos, the Meloneers leading scorer. Averaging 24 points per game according to MaxPreps, Polizzi wanted to send a message that Vazquez-Gallegos didn’t want any of this man-to-man defense. For the Meloneers senior, it turned his confident feelings into missed shots and turnovers. It was a nightmare.
“I knew going out there and shutting down their best player that others were either going to have step up or he was going to force things and make a mistake,” Polizzi said. “Having him in a situation where he wanted to pass or do anything than what he normally does, which is score, is the tone I wanted to set.”
On offense, the Mustangs were very much in the holiday spirit of sharing goodwill. Thomas Spraggins led the scoring effort with 14 points, Ashur Lavigne added 11 and Cohen Barrett scored 10. Polizzi and Tommy Reed each had eight and Preston Rhodes had five but kicked off a 19-point first quarter by drilling a 3-pointer on his first shot of the game.
Reed is a player that has seen more time in recent games and is showing steady improvement in his short time in the program.
“He’s been a spark plug as that sixth man,” Nunley said. “He’s been our leading scorer in one game and when you have a kid like that who is going to bring that energy, that helps facilitate things for those upperclassmen.”
The Mustangs head into the winter break with great momentum and will look to keep it rolling when they return to the court on Jan. 8 when they host Rye.
