(Elk Horn) Exira-EHK boys basketball coach Doug Newton says things are going well through the first couple of weeks of practice.
The Spartans still have a fairly young team with a big cast of sophomores, but two of their main leaders will be from the junior class with Easton Nelson and Trey Petersen. “Easton is a big boy and so is Trey. Easton is 6’5 and about 205 pounds so he’s going to be a load for people down there in the post. Physicality doesn’t bother Trey in fact he kind of likes it. He likes to get in there an mix it up. They are both pretty solid and their basketball IQ is pretty good and getting better.”
Each averaged in double figures scoring last season. Nelson led the team in field goal percentage at 60.7% while Petersen led the team in assists with 3.6 per game and steals with 2.1 per game. They’ll be surrounded by a lot of players that got their feet wet at the varsity level last year as freshmen. “We have a slug of sophomores. Jackson Radcliff, Cash Emgarten, Jameson Killworth, Aiden Flathers, Jaiden Pettepeier, Quintinn White, and Cole Brabham, there’s just a whole slug of them. We have a lot of guards in there and can go guard heavy or triple posts if we need to. We can go we have a couple of freshmen Cannon Hansen and Josh Nelson are pretty good for us too.”
Another key piece could be Derrek Kommes who was out for wrestling last season. “He decided to come back out he gives us a lot of help in there and give us another defensive player. He’s quick, he can jump, he can run, he can guard some guys bigger than him. We have some options, it’s a good thing. We are still young and learning everyday, but we have a bright future I think.”
Defense and shot selection have been priorities. “We are trying to get our defense as best we can and trying to get them to think a few passes ahead. We are trying to get our shot selection a little better. We all want to score points, but if you can’t score the basketball because you are taking bad shots or just can’t shoot it, we have to get better there.”
Coach Newton points to West Harrison as a conference favorite and that’s who the Spartans begin the year with on the road on Tuesday.
Exira-EHK coach Doug Newton:
