The Ponderosa boys hoops team may not win every game this season, but it wants to be known for not giving up.
After a close battle against the new crosstown rival Titans Jan. 6 at Legend High School in Parker, Ponderosa High School boys basketball walked out of The Coliseum with a 4-6 overall record.
What the Mustangs want to be evident from that game was how they can pull off a win in the fourth quarter.
“Even if we don’t win, we don’t quit,” senior guard Keegan Ghidotti said. “We keep going 100 percent all the time.”
With the 54-47 win over the second-year Titans, their first of varsity action, the Mustangs snapped a four-game losing streak, including pre-holiday tournament action, since their Dec. 12 win over Ridge View Academy.
Ponderosa coach Mike Gibbs, in his first year as head coach of the program, said the Mustangs are very inexperienced this season, with Ghidotti being the only returning player with varsity hours.
“We’re learning the game,” Gibbs said. “We’re doing on-the-job training. I think as we jell and understand what we have to be doing, we’re going to be a real true basketball program in the next two or three years.”
Ghidotti said team chemistry is a top priority for the Mustangs this season. Leadership is also something Ponderosa has been waiting on through the first part of the season and is now starting to show among the team’s roster.
“The first half of the year, we were trying to find a leader, but people are stepping in now and really helping out,” the senior said. “Coach Gibbs and assistant coach [Lawrence] Neal kind of took me under their wing and told me what they want to do. They’re taking all the players under their wing. They really just want us to have the team chemistry that we really didn’t have last year.”
Ghidotti said he feels the Mustangs’ defense and how their set up their offense will be what defines the team over the rest of the season.
Gibbs said the game against Legend was a good example of how Ponderosa’s defense wants to control the tempo of the game.
“We realized with our man-to-man defense, [Legend] got penetration, but with our zone defense, we slowed them down a bit,” Gibbs said. “They struggled to score against the zone.”
Presently, Ghidotti leads the team in scoring, averaging better than 13 points per game. Senior guard Weston Winterling serves as the Mustangs’ top 3-point threat and averages more than 10 points per game.
The team’s top rebounders thus far are junior forward Jake Reo, who averages more than six each outing, senior guard Jordan Behn, Ghidotti and junior forward Brylee Geiger.