Our Patriots Boys Basketball team finished well against Aberdeen Christian on Friday night. We won the second and third quarters and had our chances to pull ahead in the fourth. We ended up losing by 9 points, but most of those were free throws at the end. Our boys really came on at the end of the season and finished well. I am excited about the future of HT Patriots Basketball. We have a good group of athletes. With their commitment to work hard in the summer months to prepare for next season they will be a force in South Dakota B Basketball in the years to come. I see State Champion Basketball team in our future.
Our team had big shoes to fill starting out the season. We lost 66% of our scoring players from last year. Our three seniors from last year: Brendan Nowell, Jackson Maynard, and Erik Salmen scored over 600 points last season. #4 Patrick Maynard and #3 Devin Enander had 30 % of our scoring last year and increased that to over 600 points (336 Patrick, 301 Devin) which was 60% of our scoring this season. They did a tremendous job for us. #5 Aiden Frankenstein had 117 points, #2 Briggs LaBrie had 82, #22 Preston Wipf had 67, #14 Deegan Moes had 62, #1 Logan LaBrie had 59, and Kaiden Weinreis had 26. We increased our amount of shooting this year by 111. Our three point shooting percentage was up by 4% and we shot 42 more, making 27 more than last year. Our free throw shooting percentage was increased by 6%. We still need to work on being shot makers and be more comfortable with taking care of the ball. #3 Devin Enander ended with with five charges for the year leading our team. #4 Patrick Maynard lead the way on total rebounding, steals, and blocks. #1 Logan LaBrie lead the way with 41 assists. #5 Aiden Frankenstein lead the way on offensive rebounds. Our JV players (Tristan Nowell, Max Gilbert, Derek Johnson, Tucker Gilbert, Gavin Schneider, Matthew Salmen, Sawyer Miller, Eastin Otto, Riley Johnson, Jack Remily, Brodie Boomsma) were really pushing our varsity players in practices and making them better. Overall, we really grew to be a competitive team by the end of the season. Thank you HT Patriots Basketball players, manager Mikael Nielson, and Video Neil Salmen!