The preseason polls for the 2024-2025 boys basketball season in 5A listed the Windsor Wizards as the number one team, and the Mead Mavericks as number three. 

These two teams faced off against one another on December 10th. While this would be Mead’s first game, it was Windsor’s fourth game of the season. The Wizards came in undefeated at 3-0. 

After announcing both the non-starters and starters for each team, the starters came onto the court for the tip-off. The whistle blew and the game had started. 

The whole first quarter was neck-in-neck with both teams exchanging points. It seemed like every time the Mavericks scored, the Wizards responded right away with a bucket. At the end of the first quarter, the Wizards pulled away with a two point lead: 15-13 was the score. 

The nerves weren’t gone as the second quarter was similar to the first, with the teams going back and forth. There was never really a huge lead as the two teams kept on battling. 

Windsor was up by one, heading into halftime 30-29. 

Seth Coet (‘28) said that, “Coach Reese gave us a good game plan and had us prepared for everything that we needed to do [to come out of halftime fired up].” 

Coach Reese commented, “We emphasized a few things offensively and our spacing was a whole lot better. [We] hit some shots early, which confidence-wise, really helped. It came down to us just playing the way we want to play.” 

The Mavericks came out of halftime fired up and scored 23 points in the third. Their defense held Windsor to only 15 points, which gave them a 52-45 lead heading into the fourth.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Wizards came out with some energy and cashed in many buckets to have the lead. They fought hard but it wasn’t enough to stop the Mavs, as the Mavericks pulled through to get their first win of the season 67-61. 

The Mavericks are now 1-0 and the Wizards dropped to 3-1. Mead will play Highlands Ranch on December 11th.