Down one point at the half in front of a raucous crowd on the road, Mason couldn’t help but wonder if their perfect start to the season was jeopardized.
“[The game] started out rough…” said head coach Chris Capannola. “Both teams were a little nervous, there was a huge crowd. But all these guys [have] played two or three years for me, so they knew what to do.”
On the day before the boys varsity basketball team would challenge Madison County High School on the road January 12, Madison called and made it clear that if the stadium was full they would have to close the doors to anyone, including Mason parents and students trekking two hours to the game.
No reserved section for the guest team meant that it was anticipated to be a packed audience of Madison fans hoping the game was not the end of their 13-0 perfect record. Just like the Mustangs, they had an unblemished record thus far and hoped to maintain it.
In the second half of the game, Mason bounced back.
“We started playing well, playing how we usually do. It was a fun game,” said senior forward Robert Tartt.
The game ended with Mason coming out on top, 71-61, and preserving an undefeated season.
The 2015-16 campaign is shaping up to be even better than last year’s run, which ended short of a state trophy. This year’s 15-0 start is even better than the record-breaking start the Mustangs had in 2014-15.
Just two weeks earlier, on December 29 and 30, the team competed in the Joe Cascio Holiday Classic at Falls Church High School. In the past five years of playing in the annual winter break tournament, the team had fallen short of getting gold.
This year proved to be different when they defeated John Paul the Great High School in a close semifinal game, 56-53, and then beat Dominion High School, 57-42.
Senior forward Douglas Bossart was awarded first team all tournament player and Robert Tartt was named MVP.
“We are winning [games] kind of easy, but games like [at] the Christmas tournament and the [Madison County] game were tough,” said Capannola. “We are coming through when we need to. I’m pretty confident they will be able to do that going forward.”
Two days after the tough victory against Madison County, the Mustangs rebounded with a home win over Clarke County, 62-36. The team now holds a 15-0 record for the season.
Hopes are high for the post-season play to be just as strong as the regular season has been so far.
“I don’t want to jinx it, but knock on wood that we go to States. We have a really good chance this year,” said Tartt.
Mason travels to Central tonight (Jan. 20). Mason still has about a third of its conference schedule left, with road games versus Strasburg (Jan. 27) and Clarke (Feb. 5) still to come and tough home matchups versus William Monroe (Jan. 29) and Madison (Feb. 9).
