By Kyle Troutman ktroutman@cassville-democrat.com
Three starters return to the Cassville boys basketball team this season, hoping to continue its defense-first mindset while upping production on the offensive end.
Caleb Reynolds, Cassville boys hoops coach in his second year at the helm, said inexperience may provide a challenge this season, but not one the Wildcats cannot overcome.
“This season we want to continue to play tough defense while boosting our offensive output,” he said. “We won a lot of close games last season because our guys took pride in their defense, and we expect that to be the case this year as well. We have a talented but inexperienced roster this year, with only three players who played significant minutes returning from last year’s team.
“We may have some struggles early on as we have guys adjusting to the speed of the varsity game, but we have a hard working group of guys who expect to win so we expect to get better as the season progresses. We should be playing our best basketball in March.”
Four seniors departed last year’s 13-15 squad, including First Team All-District and Second Team All-Conference player Aiden Cook, who led Cassville with 12 points per game.
As a team, Cassville scored 47.9 points per game and allowed only 49.6, a school record. On average, the Wildcats had more rebounds, a higher field goal percentage and more assists per game compared to their opponents. They fell behind in the free throw and three-point percentages, as well as steals and turnovers per game.
Looking to push Cassville over .500 this year are returning starters Jon Dunbar, 6-8, and Trevin Baker, 5-10, seniors, and Eli Stokes, 6-7, junior.
“Jon was our second leading scorer last season and was the Big 8 West’s leading rebounder,” Reynolds said. “His size and length make him tough to keep away from the basket. Last year, he was very raw. but he has put in a lot of work this summer and fall to improve the detail so his game. We’re expecting big things from him.
“Trevin started several games last season but mostly came off the bench for us, and he is our only returning guard who played significant minutes last season. He will spend a lot of time as the primary ball handler and we will need him to fill a leadership role on the floor for us as well. Eli was our 6th man last season as a sophomore and did a great job in that role. This season, we expect him to be a regular starter and an important part of our scheme on both ends of the floor.“ Newcomers to the varsity expected to make an impact number the same, two seniors, Cadyn Smith, 6-2, and Ethan Bohmke, 6-5, and one junior, Simon Gates, 6-0.
“Cadyn has done a great job in the off season of improving his skill set,”Reynolds said. “We expect him to play significant minutes this year and share in the primary ball handling responsibilities. Ethan will potentially play all five positions at some point during the season. His length and athleticism combined with his well-rounded skillset should make him a tough matchup for opposing defenders.
“Simon was undoubtedly the best 3-point shooter in our program last year and he performed very well at the JV level while playing spot minutes on varsity. We expect him to be a big part of our offensive scheme this year and hopefully take some pressure off our big guys with his outside shooting.”
With those six players leading in minutes, Cassville will not be lacking in size this season.
“We know we have a lot of potential as a team, and we want to live up to that,” Dunbar said. “We know from experience that we will have a size advantage against almost every team we play, and we need to take advantage of that. I hope we can improve on our weaknesses from last season and continue doing the things we do well.”
Baker said this season, he hopes the Wildcats will improve on little mistakes and parlay that play into wins.
“Last year, I think we did some good things, but overall, we felt like we could have done more,” he said. “One issue we had was we turned the ball over too much. We have to do a better job of taking care of the basketball this year, and that will help us win more games.”
Cassville opens the season on the road at the Strafford Tournament from Nov. 27 to Dec. 2. The home opener is on Dec. 8 against Mt. Vernon, who Cassville defeated in district quarterfinal play last season.
