A raucous Roundhouse crowd took in the first-ever ‘Ruckus at the Roundhouse’ event Monday night, putting on display the Marshalltown boys’ and girls’ basketball teams ahead of their seasons.

To open the night, the lights were dimmed and announcer Austin Close gave girls basketball players an introduction, with each player throwing a T-shirt somewhere in the crowd.

After doing the same with the boys’ team, an intrasquad scrimmage kicked off with the boys’ team.

The Ruckus was the invention of basketball team moms Bianca Greazel and Kristin Polley, whose sons Grant and Drake are seniors on the team. Greazel made sure to mention that lots of volunteers helped them out and called the evening a success.

“I think we can count this as a success,” Greazel said. “It was great to see so many Bobcat fans, parents and community members, we just hope they continue to come out and support us throughout the season.

“It came together really quickly, we had some amazing donors and sponsors that are supporting us throughout the season.”

In between quarters, members of the audience were able to participate in various games on the court, from a shot-making contest to a knockout competition after the first half was over. Prizes were provided to the winners of each contest.

These fun games were made possible by a big group of collective sponsors, and Greazel said contests will be held during halftime breaks at home games throughout the season.

The scrimmage itself started out with some fire and went back-and-forth between NBA All-Star Game levels and flashes of high intensity. Highlights included plenty of dunks from junior forward Prince Jallah — who won a Dairy Queen coupon for a free Dilly Bar for each dunk. Other in-game dunkers included sophomore forward Dalen Huston and junior guard Javarion Thompson. Armonniey Thomas and Jallah led the home team to a 57-55 victory over the road team, which was led by Drake Kapayou, Grant Greazel and Huston.

Head coach Michael Appel thought it was great to see the team having fun and enjoying themselves during the scrimmage.

“It’s good to see them have fun and do that stuff,” Appel said. “A lot of our time in practice we’re pretty serious and trying to get better, so anytime we can kind of let them have fun and let loose with each other, that’s always a good thing.”

Following the scrimmage was the nightcap — the dunk contest. With judges Adam Goodvin, Dr. Theron Schutte, Todd Thimesch and Andrew and Tyler Peschong watching on, five Bobcats attempted to put together dunks on the fly for the captive audience. Thompson and Malachi Holmes were knocked out in the first round, with Huston, Thomas and Jallah making the final.

Jallah won with a perfect score of 50 by jumping over Holmes to slam it home with his right hand.

Jallah said after the contest he wasn’t sure he had made the dunk right away.

“I thought it was short,” Jallah said. “I just thought of it on the spot. It was fun.”

Marshalltown’s girls’ basketball team kicks off Tuesday night at Des Moines Lincoln, while the boys play Nov. 30 at home against Dowling Catholic.