Coaches of the MLHS boys basketball teams summed up their seasons at the recent MLHS Winter Sports Awards Night, and also awarded end-of-season honors to their players. Those awards are listed at the end of the article.
Season-ending comments from Head Coach Scott Loberger: “The MLHS Varsity Boys basketball program completed our season with a 14-12 record, 4th in the Big East North, while playing in a very talented Big East conference. The conference itself boasted four different teams that were ranked in the top ten (in the state) during the course of the year as well as three regional champions.”
“The season was really a tale of thirds. The first third saw a youthful team in terms of varsity experience. For the first 8 games of the year, we had two players that had significant previous experience. We battled through that part of the season with losses of 2, 6 and 7 points and came into the Christmas break at 2-6.”
“The middle third of the year was about figuring out how to play with new players filling new roles. We had our ups and downs with big wins over Kiel and taking Reedsville into OT and also some rough games due to illness. After the second part of the year, we had battled back to 7-9 overall.”
“Then we entered the final stretch of the season. As this point, our experienced players began to lead and some role players really grew in their confidence as the team began to jell. The last 8 games of the season saw a record of 6-2 leaving the team with a 13-11 overall record and looking like about a 6 or 7 seed for the post season, and poised to take another run at a Regional Championship.”
“This year was the first year of computer rankings and by the thoughts of many, it came out a little less accurate than we had hoped for, giving MLHS a 9 seed which meant heading out on the road to play 12-12 Oconto. The game really mimicked our season. Oconto had their best shooting half of the season and we had easily our worst, but still found ourselves up by 2 heading into the half. We came out in the second half and cruised to a 15 point victory. Although we were looking forward to a rematch with now state-bound Roncalli, we had hoped to see them on a neutral court in the Section game, but instead they were our 2nd round game. It was a battle that hovered around a 10 point game and eventually brought the end of our season.”
The statistical leaders on the team were as follows (all stats are averages per-game):
Points: Ethan Menges 16.1, August Hecker 10, Sho Fukasawa 9.9
Rebounds: Ethan Menges 10.2, August Hecker 6.4, Aidan Franzen 4.9
Assists: August Hecker 6.1, Sho Fukasawa 3.6, Ethan Menges 1.4
Steals: August Hecker 3, Sho Fukasawa 1.7, Ethan Menges 1
Senior Ethan Menges received 2nd Team All-Conference recognition in the Big East, and classmates August Hecker and Sho Fukasawa each received Honorable Mention All-Conference Recognition.
August Hecker was named varsity MVP by the Lancer boys coaches. Sho Fukasawa was named Defensive Player of the Year and Co-Offensive Player of the Year, and Ethan Menges was awarded Co-Offensive Player of the Year.
Senior Parker Vogt was honored with the Lancer Award by the coaches, recognizing his Christian leadership on the team.
Boys JV1 Sophomore Caden Stanzel was presented with the JV1 boys Lancer Award at the Awards Night. The boys JV1 team finished the season with an 11-11 record.
Boys JV2 Comments from Head Coach Pastor Norv Kock: “The boys JV2 finished the season at 6-13. The competition was very good this year as schools with JV2 teams are those that have very good programs. Highlight wins were against NEW Lutheran (the first game after Christmas break) and against Hilbert’s JV1 team. The members of this year’s team were very good to each other and always displayed a willingness to fight hard in each game.”
Freshman Kamden Baye was honored with the Lancer Award for his Christian leadership on the team.