As the Varsity Boys’ Basketball season begins, the first game of the season on November 30 is against second place Longmont. The pre-season poll placed Mead in sixth place in all of 4a with 40 votes (Source; CHSAAnow, Ryan Casey) while Longmont received 117. Mead certainly lived up to the expectations.

In a pregame interview with Will Maher he stated, “Yeah, we’re all a bit nervous, they’re the defending champions.” The game didn’t go the exact way that we would have liked it to with a final score of 77-64 in favor of Longmont; however, the team played very well so this could be the start to an impressive season for the Mavericks.

The Mavericks came out strong in the first quarter, outscoring Longmont 17-11. Caleb Ayers of Mead made a statement in the first, putting down 8 points with 2 baskets from three point range. He would finish the game with over 20 points, an impressive number.

In the second quarter it was the same story. It was starting to look like Mead was going to take complete control of the game. They were shutting down the Trojans and creating tons of offensive chances. By halftime it was 36-26 Mead. They were shooting impressive numbers making over 50 percent of their shots—a difficult feat considering the team that they were up against.

The start to the second half also marked the beginning of the comeback by the Trojans. Jax Wilke of Mead had an impressive 3rd quarter, putting up 4 of the 11 points by Mead to hold off Longmont, defending state champions, by a nine point deficit.

The fourth quarter was sadly the end of the Mavericks’ lead however it was spectacular to hold back possibly the best team in the state for that long. “We played really well; it’s just we lost our composure,” says Caleb Ayers. Longmont had 22 points in the fourth which finalized the comeback when they held Mead to 17. It was all in all a great game and performance by Mead.