3A No. 2 Manitou Springs boys basketball stays undefeated, beats 2A No. 7 Peyton
PEYTON — Usually it’s the big three of Cole Sienknecht, Luke Rodholm and Davyn Adamscheck lead the charge for Manitou Springs.
But Saturday was Kaleb Chapin’s day to shine. Typically, Chapin is the sixth man for the Mustangs (11-0 overall), but he found his way into the starting lineup and led all scorers with 19 points in his team’s 73-49 win over Peyton on Saturday.
“He’s had a couple of games where he’s shot the ball real well,” Manitou coach Ken Vecchio said. “He’s had a couple of games where he’s struggled, so for him to get out and start making shots, and those were going in pretty smooth.”
He scored 15 of his 19 points from long range, showing that the Mustangs may have more depth than they’ll let on. They were missing Jared Keul, a usual starter, and Dillon Noble due to illness.
They weren’t sure what to expect coming in against the Class 2A CHSAANow.com No. 7-ranked Panthers (10-1), but got good contributions from players that usually see limited minutes.
“We have our starting five and a few guys off the bench but when we get a night like this where everyone gets to come out and perform, no matter the minutes they usually get, it’s a great feeling,” Chapin said. “It’s spurts the confidence to see everyone out getting points and working hard.”
The Mustangs got 17 from Rodholm while Sienknecht and Adamscheck each added 12. Conrad Olsen’s five points at the beginning of the game helped spark a rally that gave Manitou an early lead. He wouldn’t score again during the game, but he didn’t to with the way Chapin was shooting the ball.
“It felt really good,” Chapin said. “Warmups didn’t feel great, but when I came out I felt good and things kept going in.”
It was the first loss of the season for the Panthers. They came into the game surrendering only 34 points per game to their opponents, but when seeing a team that coach Jedd Sims expects to content for the 3A crown, maintaining those defensive expectations were going to be difficult.
“We were sitting at 10-0 and there was a comfortability with the last couple practices,” he said. “The last couple of games weren’t as challenging as we’d hoped. I think this is a great thing. I was telling (the team) in the locker room to use this as fuel. It doesn’t feel good to lose. It doesn’t matter who you lose to, it doesn’t feel good.”
The Panthers’ scoring effort was spaced out pretty well as Gage Gellerman led with 14 while Seth Anderson had 12 and Dominic Gentile added 11.
This game was not on either team’s initial schedule to start the season, but each had an opponent drop off so the game was added. It split what would’ve been a full week off competition for Manitou, who hosts Colorado Springs Christian School on Tuesday.
“If we hadn’t played today, we probably wouldn’t have even practiced,” Vecchio said. “To get in the gym and get moving and go through what we do was good. Now we have to crank up for next week.”
Up next for Peyton is a road game against Limon. After that, the Panthers return home to face Dolores Huerta.
