The MV Rams basketball team competed in three games in Triad High School’s Stove Top Stuffing Classic.
The Rams started off the season against Granite City Warriors, hoping for a different result from last year’s first game.
The Rams had sophomore Cale Mauer, ‘26, starting with the varsity squad down low.
As well as first-year starter Marlin Price, ‘25, with three returning veteran players, Equinton Millsap, ‘24, Navontae Nesbit, ‘24, and R.J King, ‘24 manning the middle.
In the first minutes, the Rams came out blazing, with the first points coming from Mauer with a 3-pointer.
The Rams would do more of the same for the first quarter, winning 24-17 coming out to the second quarter.
The rest of the first half was more of the same, with the Rams being up going into the second half.
Jake Page, ‘25, came out of the halftime break, with a dunk after a missed free throw.
The Rams would cruise the rest of the way, winning 54-43.
Two freshmen, David Barnes, ‘27, and Trevor McClure, ‘27 also made their varsity debuts.
“I wouldn’t really say that there’s a lot of pressure being a freshman on varsity. There’s a little bit of freedom that comes with that. If you mess up, you can always just go down and play JV and freshman ball.” stated Trevor McClure ‘27.
The Rams faced the Springfield Senators in the second game, going into it, the Rams wanted to win to gain momentum for the start of the season.
Making quick and easy work of the Senators, the Rams won with the final score of the game being 71-35 with the Rams winning.
The Rams played their third game of the season against Triad Knights, who beat them in last year’s sectional semi-final.
The first quarter was a combined effort from the Rams offense and defense, ending in a tie, 16-16.
For the start of the second quarter, the defense stood out, by only allowing eight points in the total of the quarter, the Rams were up 31-24 going into halftime.
Coming out of the locker room for the third quarter, the Rams defensive side would continue to shine, as the Knights would only score 4 total points.
The Rams would go on to win the game, beating the team that knocked them out of state contention last year, 48-36.
MV Rams basketball hopes to continue this hot streak going into the well-known rivalry between the Centralia Orphans on Friday, December 1, 2023.
“I feel like we can win conference again, and regionals or sectionals,” Equinton Millsap ‘24 stated.
