9-win team graduates 4, returns 4 impactful underclassmen
BY KYLE TROUTMAN ktroutman@cassville-democrat.com
Coming off back-to-back district championships, it was a tall order for the Southwest boys basketball team to reach the same heights this season.
Under new Head Coach Jeff Treat, the Trojans went 9-16 in a year where many new players saw the floor, and Treat gave the campaign a B- grade.
“Our biggest improvement from start to finish was our team chemistry,” Treat said. “It was a struggle at the start because nobody had played with each other yet and we were still figuring each other out throughout the season. Toward the middle of the second half of the season, we started to play better together and every player found what their role was.
“I wanted us to be able to play faster, but when we had injuries occur. We had to slow it down and make sure we didn’t get worn out.”
The Trojans started the season with a pair of wins and strung together back-to-back victories a total of three times throughout the season, two of which came against 20-win teams.
“Our biggest win was against Galena, who won 20 games this year,” Treat said. “That was an exciting game for us because we had struggles to finish games this year against good teams.”
Southwest bested Galena, 87-82, on Feb. 7, then three days later, defeated Blue Eye, who also had 20 wins on the year, 53-51.
The Trojans were led this season by four seniors, including leading scorer Kasen Holder, the 2024-2025 Class 3, District 12 Player of the Year .
“Kasen averaged 23.5 points per game for us this year, and he lead our team in most categories,” Treat said. “He was our leader for our team and he had to do so much for our team. He ended up with a 46-point game this year versus Galena and multiple 30-point games.
“[Senior] Tyler Meek had many games this year with three or more 3-pointers in a game. His experience from the previous year helped us down the stretch, and his ability to hit 3s made us harder to guard.”
Senior Brayden Rose, Treat said, had multiple double-digit rebound games, establishing himself as one of the team’s best defenders and giving Southwest the ability to play a bigger lineup at times.
Senior Brady Brinkman sustained an injury in December, prior to which he had two double- digit scoring games. Treat said Brinkman’s physicality was what helped the team most.
Returning next year will be three full-time starters and one player who was starting before becoming injured in January.
“[Sophomore] Lane Hendrix had 9 double- doubles and multiple games with 15+ rebounds,” Treat said. “He got great experience this year and became a second option for us on offense, and I am looking forward to his growth the next couple seasons. [Sophomore] Elijah Keeney had a 15-point game in our win over Sarcoxie this year. He had to play some point guard and handle the ball for us a lot this year. He made a lot of plays that didn’t show up in the stat book, and we’re looking forward to his growth the next two years.
“Junior Jacob Pierce had multiple games with double-digit points. He was able to give us size and speed on defense. He helped us handling the ball and had a 17-point game against Galena. Sophomore Skyler Reines was playing point guard until he got hurt. He had games where he had 5-plus assists and did a good job making everybody better. All 4 of these guys will bring a lot of experience and be able to lead the new guys next year.”
Treat said the team’s goal this season was to compete for another district title, but a tough draw against Diamond, when Southwest was not at its healthiest or rolling like Treat wanted, contributed to the firstround loss.
“Our goal next season will be for us to play our best ball at the end of the year, and hopefully competing in districts,” Treat said. “We will bring back four guys that made a lot of plays for us last year, We have a few players that played JV this year that will help us a bunch next year. If we all get better this offseason and get healthy we can have a special season.”
The Trojans finished 9-16 overall and 2-1 in conference play.
