A lot of things went right for the Hillsboro basketball team last season.
The Hawks won 25 games and their second straight Jefferson County Activities Association large schools championship and are 8-0 against conference opponents the last two seasons.
“We want to compete hard and get better each day,” said Hillsboro head coach Dan Johnson, who’s in his eighth season with the Hawks and is the returning JCAA large-school division Coach of the Year. “Through our effort, we want to give ourselves a chance to win every game we play, including conference and tournament games.
After losing 49-45 to Farmington at the Park Hills Central Tournament, Hillsboro exacted revenge against the Knights by beating them 39-38 in the Class 4 District 2 championship game. The Hawks hung on to their one-point lead the last 4:47 of the game. Hillsboro (25-4) bowed out in the sectionals to Sikeston.
Forward Gaven Pinkley surpassed 1,000 career points and has 1,447 points and 771 rebounds entering his senior year. Pinkley is the reigning JCAA large-school division Player of the Year after averaging a double-double (20.6 points, 10.4 rebounds). Pinkley has all the tools the complete a successful prep career.
Hillsboro has plenty of complements to Pinkley in the frontcourt with seniors Isaiah Martin and Tyler Isaacson and junior Michael Brewer.
Brewer was first-team all-conference after averaging 15.8 points and 9.3 points last season. Brewer was effective and scoring from inside and out.
Martin, an all-state track athlete, was the best sixth man in the conference last season after playing in all 29 games and averaging 7.4 points.
Isaacson hasn’t had a chance to join the basketball team because he’s been piloting the Hawks at quarterback on the gridiron in the Class 4 playoffs. Using his considerable wingspan, Isaacson grabbed five rebounds and scored five points per game last year.
The Hawks have a trio of experienced, talented guards in seniors Micheal Keller and Austin Fleming and junior Ben Lampkins. Keller also has been playing football, but is very quick on the hardwood. He had 24 steals last year. Fleming averaged 5.8 points and led the Hawks with 33 3-point baskets. Lampkins was second-team all-conference and averaged 6.9 points and made 24 treys.
“We have a good mixture of size and speed along with talented players,” Johnson said. “We want to move the ball quickly up and down and side to side on offense and crash hard. Defensively, we want to utilize our size and speed to keep the ball away from the basket and help trigger our offense.”
Klaus returns to Eagles
After missing last season with an ACL injury, senior guard Koby Klaus is back to lead Grandview. Klaus was the small-school division Player of the Year as a sophomore but injured his knee in practice before the season began and didn’t play a game last year.
In his first two seasons, Klaus topped 1,000 points, and remains 270 points from being the school’s all-time leading scorer and 47 assists from holding that career school record. He averaged 22.7 points as a sophomore.
Klaus is one piece of the puzzle that Grandview head coach Chris Miller said is still being assembled. Senior guards Anthony Dolde and Dru Stanz and junior forward Colton McAnally all started last season. McAnally averaged 9.8 points and 4.4 rebounds last year. Dolde and McAnally were both honorable mentions last season.
“Our fifth starter is up for grabs and we should be deeper than we have been in a couple of years,” Miller said. “Last season, we were decimated by injuries. This season, if we can stay healthy, we should be able to play a deeper bench. Our roles could change throughout the season based on what the coaching staff observes and when we find things that work for us.”
Juniors Austin Borrini (guard), Noah Richardson (guard-forward), Garrett Gliedt (forward) and Bryan Martinez (guard) round out the varsity. Martinez averaged 8.9 points last season.
“We have a lot of guards so we will have to be awfully scrappy, both on offense and defense,” Miller said. “We will see if that translates into faster play as the season progresses.”
With Klaus, the Eagles are 28-23. Without him, they finished 3-21 last season. Miller said he hopes Grandview will dramatically improve.
“Despite everything we endured last season, our kids and coaches felt that we were better than a three-win team,” Miller said. “Many times, we did not have the depth to compete for a full game. Our kids believe, if we work hard, we can put ourselves in a position for a conference title.”
Blue Jays return player of the year
When you’ve got the reigning division Player of the Year returning, filling out the rest of the starting five becomes much easier.
Junior Easton Null brings the complete package to the court and is closing in on 1,000 career points after averaging 21.1 points in 2016-17. Null, who made 87 3-pointers last year, needs about 400 points to break Mike Reed’s school career scoring record.
“Easton is a great player for us and also a great kid off the floor,” said Jefferson head coach Nic Zenker, who has 211 career wins in six years with the Blue Jays and 17 years overall. “He has worked tremendously hard this offseason to really try and grow his game and also grow his athleticism.”
Zenker said the starting lineup is still being settled because of players who are nursing injuries from football and baseball seasons. The Blue Jays have several returning players who’ve played varsity and Zenker said he’s confident of putting any of them in a starting role.
“There is definitely competition for these spots,” Zenker said.
Senior Dakota Jakoubek just completed a fine varsity football career and he’ll bring a certain amount of grittiness and physical play into the post. Jakoubek led the team with 157 rebounds last year and was second-team all-conference; he’s closing in on Tyler Gosnel’s career rebounding mark.
“Dakota does a great job defensively in the post and the boards,” Zenker said. “We are excited for him to take on a more prominent role on the offensive end of the floor this year.”
Zenker said Jefferson prides itself on its defense. The Blue Jays never have a lot of height, so they run a mix of man-on-man and zone schemes. On offense, they run a lot of motion and place the emphasis on good shot selections through ball movement.
“We feel if we can defend well, play solid fundamentally and give maximum effort in practices and games, we will have a chance to win some games,” Zenker said.
The Blue Jays finished 10-15 a year ago and lost to St. Pius X in the first round of the Class 3 District 3 tournament. They open the season at the Crystal City Tournament on Nov. 27.
Thornton will be tough to stop
From the ashes of a 1-9 start, St. Pius X (9-17) finished .500 the rest of the way and thumped Jefferson 71-49 in the first round of the Class 3 District 3 tournament before being ousted by tournament champ Park Hills Central.
Junior guard Jalen Thornton is on the cusp of having a breakout season. Thornton was on the all-league second team after averaging 9.3 points and 4.7 rebounds, but those numbers seem pedestrian compared with what Thornton is capable of doing. He’s a load to stop dribbling through the paint, but he needs to improve on his shooting from the free-throw line and beyond the arc.
Guard Nicholas Whitesides, guard-forward Riley Naeger and forward Luke Klahs join Thornton on the starting unit. The fifth starter hasn’t been identified yet, said Eric Lawrence, who enters his third season as head coach. Klahs, Naeger and Whitesides all averaged about 5 points last season.
“We will not have a true sixth man but we will have a deep bench with everyone being able to contribute to the team’s success,” Lawrence said. “Our bench play will be an extremely important part of our success as the coaching staff will be leaning on a variety of players to contribute and assume various roles.”
The foundation of the defense is aggressive man-to-man, where they try to force opponents out of their comfort zones. On offense, St. Pius will try to take advantage of transition opportunities. In the half-court set, Lawrence said they will run a variety of offenses.
Despite their subpar overall record, the Lancers finished 4-1 in the conference, tied with St. Vincent. Lawrence said St. Pius has shared a piece of the division title for the past nine seasons.
The Lancers begin the season at the Valley Park Tournament on Nov. 27. Lawrence enjoys his annual battles against Crystal City and Jefferson.
“The Jefferson game is always a big game because it’s the last conference game of the year and usually has conference championship implications,” Lawrence said.
Portell leads Tigers onto court
A lot of the success Festus hopes to achieve this season is directly connected to the play of second-team all-conference guard Daniel Portell, who was second on the Tigers with 12.5 points per game last year.
The Tigers will miss 2017 graduate Joe Woods’ 18 points per game, which means Portell will be counted on to score even more. Portell was deadly from the free-throw line, making 44 of 54 shots.
Jason Therrell has been at Festus for 12 years and begins his second season as the head coach. Therrell said he doesn’t think of traditional rivals such as De Soto and Hillsboro as any more important than the teams on the Tigers’ nonconference schedule.
“I consider our biggest rival the team we are play that day,” Therrell said.
Beyond Portell, Therrell said there are no guarantees as to who starts right now, as minutes will be divvied out to whoever competes the hardest in practice. The Tigers have decent bench depth and five players with significant varsity experience.
“We will hopefully be an unselfish team on the offensive end that likes to make the extra pass,” Therrell said. “On the defensive end, our goal is to be a tough man-to-man team that rebounds the ball well.”
Brennan Pryor, Kobe Branscomb, Owen Horsley and Blake Holland are all seasoned varsity veterans. Adding depth this year are Aquille Mohammed, Savez Thomas, Zach Liles and Jason Johnson. Portell led the Tigers with 70 3-pointers, while Holland was second with 27.
Blackcats have large hole to fill without Coffman
Matt Coffman did everything last year for Herculaneum. He was tough around the basket and he led the Blackcats last year with 17.2 points per game. Coffman had his best game of the season when Herky beat St. Pius X, 52-21.
But Coffman grabbed his diploma last spring and Herculaneum is regrouping after dropping its last five games after that win at St. Pius. Herky finished 10-14 after being routed 67-37 by Principia in the first round of the Class 3 District 4 tournament. The Panthers were 7-16 going into that game.
One positive aspect Herculaneum Jason Jarvis had over some of the other coaches in the league two weeks before the season began was the luxury of having his starting five set. Seniors Chandler Jansen and Matt Sales, juniors Blake Leathers and Austin Stepp and sophomore Jordan Duncan have earned the starting spots. Seniors Corben Clubb and James Moloney are the top two bench players.
Jansen, a forward, is the most polished of the Blackcats and he made 63 of 114 shots (53.5 percent) of his shots and snared 108 rebounds last season.
“There were games last season that Chandler just took over for us,” Jarvis said. “He can score in bunches. He’s very athletic and I expect big things from him on offense and defense.”
Sales averaged slightly fewer than 4 points per game last season, however Jarvis said he’s a natural scorer who will take on a larger offensive role.
“Matt goes 100 percent at all times,” Jarvis said.
Duncan played in 18 games as a freshman and averaged 5.8 points, but he shot just 27 percent from the field. Like Sales, Jarvis expects Duncan’s point total to increase.
“(Duncan) is a great shooter and smart defender,” Jarvis said. “I see a lot of upside in his game. I am expecting him to contribute in all facets.”
The Blackcats begin the season on Nov. 20 at Meadow Heights.
Hawks had Dragons number last season
Nothing is worse than absorbing a constant beating from your closest rival.
De Soto played Hillsboro four times last season, and four times the Hawks came away with bragging rights, most recently in the Class 4 District 2 semifinals. Hillsboro won those four games by an average of 22.7 points.
“Hillsboro is still our biggest rivalry,” De Soto head coach Zeb Hammond said. “Unfortunately, we played them four times last year and were on the losing end all four times.”
Before the Dragons’ season ended, they whipped Festus 66-54 in the first round of districts. Shooting guard Austin West scored 36 points against the Tigers and showed he can take over a game. West is the team’s leading returning scorer (12.6 points, 31 3-point baskets) and is a threat to put the ball in the basket from anywhere on the floor.
Clayton Snudden had an all-conference season on the gridiron playing wide receiver and now he runs the De Soto offense as the point guard. Snudden averaged 6 points and 2.5 assists.
“Austin and Clayton will be two of our contributors this year,” Hammond said. “Both are returning starters and key components for us to be successful.”
Trevor Johnson and Brett Gibbs will split time at one of the forward positions, Kody Suess has locked down the other, and Aaron Perrent starts at center. Johnson, Gibbs and Jordan Northcutt are key bench players.
“I have seven guys who could start every night depending on the matchup,” Hammond said. “In addition, there are a few sophomores and freshmen that will some time off of the bench.”
Hammond wants the Dragons to be uptempo, force turnovers and keep the opposing defense on its heels.
“Hopefully by doing this, we can steal possessions,” Hammond said.
De Soto opens the season by hosting the Fountain City Classic starting on Nov. 27.
Young Owls have experienced leader
Half of the 10 varsity Windsor basketball players are sophomores. With that much youth, the Owls need a guiding force.
Luckily for them, they’ve got senior swing man Michael Schmidt, a second-team all-conference selection last season. Schmidt, 6-6, was the team’s leading rebounder with 8.8 per game and he averaged 8.5 points. He made 100 of his 200 shots from the field. He was one of the top shot blockers in the county with 109 (4.1 per game).
Windsor head coach Todd Dutton enters his seventh season with the Owls, and he said this is the tallest and strongest team he’s coached in that time.
“We will try to push the tempo when we can and play smart on offense,” Dutton said. “Defensively, we will try to use our size to make it difficult for our opponent to score.”
Junior guard Connor Hartman (6-2) and junior forward Jordan Van Etten (6-2), sophomore twins Ethan (6-2) and Evan Worley (6-6), sophomore forward Matt Martin (6-4) and junior forward Aaron Harrison (6-2) are jockeying for the other four starting spots.
A pair of 6-0 sophomores, Pierce Hartmann and Norman Alford, and junior Nate Browning will spell the starters.
“We want to win all of the games we should win, and some we should not against more talented teams,” Dutton said.
The Owls tip off the season in the Southside Classic Tournament at Mehlville on Nov. 27.
Hornets go as DeGeare goes
Senior center Brady DeGeare (6-6) is a rare talent at the high school level.
With his height, DeGeare is hard to guard close to the basket, but he also stepped back and made 19 3-point baskets last season when he averaged 19.6 points and 9.7 rebounds. DeGeare has been all-league for three seasons and he should eclipse 1,500 career points this season.
Senior forward Noah Hutton, senior swing man Chris Eisenbeis and junior guards Griffin Morris and Collin Wilkerson join DeGeare as starters. Head coach Sean Breeze said he’s still working out how all 10 varsity players will fit together.
“We would like to play a little more fast-paced this year,” said Breeze, who enters his 11th season on the bench. “(Defensively) we play a mix of man-to-man and zone, depending on our opponent.”
Crystal City hosts the Rolla “Duke” Herbert Tournament to open the season, starting Nov. 27.