Despite severely limited practice time, Manchester Academy’s Mavericks overcame the odds to defeat Washington School 48-44 in the season-opener on Tuesday.
According to Manchester Academy head basketball coach John Harris, the team had its first practice only two days before they played the AAAA team.
“We had our first practice as a team ever on Sunday,” Harris said. The football guys played a lot of minutes for us, big minutes.”
Manchester was outscored 36-32 heading into the final quarter, but it was there that the Mavs peaked, outscoring Washington 16-8 to take it 48-44.
Although they won, Harris still sees room for improvement.
“I’m very happy with the win,” Harris said. “We turned the ball over 20 times and still won. I guess that’s a positive. We can’t have that many turnovers, though. We’re still a long ways away from a finished product.”
Matt Liddon led the Mavericks with 28 points in the win.
The big scoring night is exactly what Harris wanted to see out of his point guard.
“I told him before the game that we needed to push the ball,” Harris said. “We needed a big scoring game out of him, and we got it. He went 9-for-19 from the field. If he stays around 50%, I will be very happy.”
Mark Peaster was behind Liddon with eight points in the victory.
Next up for the Mavericks is a massive non-conference match-up with rival Benton Academy on Tuesday.
The games at Benton begin at 4 p.m.
