Editor's note: Former Daily News sports writer and current Fort Bend Sun sports editor Corey Roepken was present for the season opener for the La Marque boys basketball team against Fort Bend Bush. La Marque's performance inspired him enough to write a guest blog for us. Here's what he thought about La Marque's 71-67 win over Bush.

Dear La Marque fans,

Are you still down in the dumps about the football team not making the playoffs again this season? If so, I have some news that should cheer you up.

That boys basketball team you have over there has a chance to be pretty special.

I don’t work for the Daily News anymore, but I watched the Coogs play Tuesday night as part of my new job covering Fort Bend ISD. Heading into the game at Bush I didn’t expect a blowout, but I certainly would not have picked La Marque to win it.

I knew even before La Marque scored 11 points in the final 1 minute, 31 seconds to rebound from a seven-point deficit and win the game, 71-67, that it would be a good team this year. The Coogs return seven players, including University of Texas commit Julien Lewis, and are ranked No. 10 in the preseason state coaches poll.

By beating Bush on Tuesday La Marque turned even more heads than critics probably expected it to. Why? The Broncos are supposed to be pretty good, too.

District 23-5A inarguably is one of the most competitive in the state with different teams winning all the time. Heck, you don’t even need to win the district to go deep in the postseason. Ball High fans may remember losing to Elkins in the first round of last year’s playoffs. Did you know that Elkins team needed to win a tiebreaker game just to get into the postseason? Did you know that Elkins team also went all the way to the regional semifinals?

Two years ago Dulles finished third in 23-5A and went all the way to the state championship game. Hopefully you get the point. This district is fantastic, and your Coogs just beat the team that is expected to win it this season.

Bush has won four playoff games the last two seasons. It is coached by Ronnie Courtney, who led Willowridge to back-to-back state titles at the beginning of this decade. It has a star player in Darius Richardson, who had 31 points and nine rebounds Tuesday.

La Marque overcame more than great coaching and talent Tuesday. The Coogs never seemed to get a break with the officials. They overcame all of that and never let the game get away from them. The lead went back and forth even when Lewis sat out six minutes of the third and fourth quarters because he had four fouls.

Everybody knows about Lewis, but it’s the supporting cast that is going to make the Coogs the best in Galveston County be season’s end (if not already).

Jordan Dotson was his usual heady self. Darrian Provost Johnson made five 3-pointers, got seven rebounds and had four assists. Wes Henderson was a rebound machine (14) who also made a pair of 3-pointers on his way to 14 points. Quevin Cams had six assists from his forward position.

La Marque easily could have walked into Bush’s gym and been intimidated. You could tell from the get-go that wasn’t going to be the case. Coach Cedric Mason has these guys coached up pretty well already.

The past couple of seasons the Coogs have been late chargers. There will be no sneaking up on anybody this season.

I’m not here to tell you La Marque is going to win the state title. I’m not even going to tell you it can win the regional title because there is a certain team that goes by the name of Jack Yates up in Houston that won last year’s state championship and dropped 140 on Dickinson on Monday.

I’m here to tell you that if you give this team a chance, it could give you Coogs fans something to be extremely proud of.

Sincerely,

Corey Roepken