Greenville hopes to repeat
Litchfield, Hillsboro, Southwestern return experience
Pana, North Mac, Vandalia, Carlinville, Staunton turn to young talent
11/27/2023
BY JACK BULLOCK
CARBONDALE - The only team in the South Central Conference who managed to have a pretty good postseason in 2022-23 were the Greenville Comets.

Coach Todd Cantrill's club went 21-12 a year ago, 8-1 in the SCC to win the league by a game over North Mac and then took home the hardware from the East Alton-Wood River Regional with a 46-26 dismantling of Roxana in the finale.

Lawrenceville ended the Comets' season with a 73-64 triumph at the Newton Sectional.

The regional title was the program's 18th and Coach Cantrill's fifth in his 25-seasons as the head coach.

Last season didn't start out well (2-5) but the Comets came on late and made it to the Round of 32 in the state.

Greenville lost five seniors; two of which were starters, from last season but three key players return along with some young players looking to get back into a sectional.

Two seniors and a junior return from starting assignments.

Kaleb Gardner, a 6-1 senior guard, 6-3 senior forward Nick Grull and 6-3 junior forward Cale Ackerman are back.

Six-three junior Ben Hutchinson is another of the returning players for Coach Cantrill that has experience along with a promising looking junior class.

Five-nine guard Gus Olson , 5-8 guard Gavin Doll and 5-7 junior CJ Jackson will provide backcourt help for the Comets while up front look for 6-3 forward Nolan Tabor to provide help.

Six-five senior Shane McCracken is also part of the varsity minutes.

“We will return three starters and have a good group of newcomers,” said Coach Cantrill, , who has won six of the past 10 SCC championships.

The Litchfield Purple Panthers have four starters returning for a 17-14 squad that lost to eventual regional champions Alton Marquette in the semifinals of their own regional last February.

However in his two seasons as head coach, Litchfield mentor Nick Gerndt is seeing the fruits of his program's labor.

A 14-14 campaign followed by an above .500 finish is getting the job done.

With the amount of experience returning, this might be the year the Purple ones get back 20-wins for the first time since the Coach Drew Logan led club finished 20-10 in 2018-19.

Litchfield won the Riverton Thanksgiving Tournament last November but some inconsistent play late kept them from a stellar season.

Five-eleven senior guard Keenan Powell returns after earning second team all-SCC honors last winter.

AJ Odle, a 5-10 senior guard, was third team all-conference as well.

Six-one senior forward Tate Dobrinich and 6-0 senior forwad Carson Saathoff round out the quintet of returning starters for Coach Gerndt.

Litchfield hopes to have 5-10 senior guard Victor McGill for a whole season as he missed most of his junior campaign hurt.

The Panthers look to have a group of players ready to compete for the other starting spot and minutes.

Five-ten senior guards Anthony Bader and Drake Gaspersen as well as 6-0 senior forwards Kendon Longwell and Ian Otto will be vying for PT.

There are some others looking to move up.

Five-ten junior guard Keenan Logan along with 6-4 junior transfer Nathan Schaake (Hillsboro) should be contributors as well.

AJ Sypherd, a 5-10 senior who didn't play as a junior, will suit up.

Coach Gerndt mentioned 5-10 junior Martavious Jones, and 6-4 junior Harrison Thomas, who was also on the shelf last year injured.

Litchfield is just a few wins shy of 1,500 in the program's history.

“We are an extremely deep team with lots of talent returning from last years team,' said Coach Gerndt. “We will look to play lots of guys and have a fun, fast paced style of basketball that should make us extremely competitive this upcoming season. We have a great group of guys who constantly compete and push each other to make each other better as a team.”
Hillsboro and head coach Corbin Govaia are another of the teams in the SCC that have players back with varsity time in the bank.

Four starters return for a Hiltoppers' squad that started pretty strong before losing six of their last seven contests to close the book at 16-15, 4-5 in the league.

A 58-55 regional loss to Pana at Litchfield was the final prep basketball game for departing seniors Will Christian, Blaze Helton, Dimitri Plum and Dillon Devlin.

However the ones returning want to put their mark on the Hiltopper program that hasn't won a regional title since the 1998-99 30-1 team made it to the Charleston Super-sectional.

Six-two senior Jace Stewart is back for Hillsboro.

Mitchell Lowe, also a 6-2 senior, along with 6-0 senior Adrian Harston were part of the clubs' success.

Six-two junior Nate Matoush played well as a sophomore for Hillsboro.

Coach Govaia has some other kids who appear to have made the grade.

Senior Elliot Lentz, who missed the last two seasons injury, returns for the Hiltoppers.

Look for juniors Caleb Greenwood, a 5-8 guard, and 5-9 guar Jackson Tuetken to be a part of the rotation along with 5-10 sophomore Tony White.

Five-eleven sophomore Mark Mattson and 5-8 junior Mitchell Cunningham round out a Hiltoppers' roster for 2023-24.

“We return four of our five starters from last season,” said Coach Govaia. “We will be returning some talent the floor and I'm hopeful we can get a 20-win season.”

Pana has some serious holes to fill as Coach Adam Metzger and his crew head into the season.

Gone from the 18-15 squad are senior guards Max Lynch and Ace Armstrong and senior forwards Devon Peebles, Brycen Mahnke, Brant Bowker and Parker Ruot.

Six important Panthers no longer on the prowl.

Peebles led Pana with 22.8 points a game while Lynch was at 10.2.

The club had winning streaks and losing streaks during a campaign that came to a halt in the Litchfield Regional championship game, losing to Alton Marquette, 43-32.

Coach Metzger will turn to one returning starter to lead a relatively young group into battle.

Hayden Blackwell, a 6-0 junior guard, is the returning starter.

Matthew McFarland, a 6-3 junior, 6-0 junior Brayden Carlson and 6-2 senior guard Ethan Hicks are back.

Pana will have some others looking for spots.

Six-foot senior Clayton Worker, 6-1 senior Ross Glick, 6-0 senior Logan Pickler, 5-9 junior Isaiah Harbert and 5-10 sophomore Cash Lynch should find minutes available once the season begins.

“This year's squad will be very inexperienced at the varsity level. There are multiple athletes that will be asked to contribute. The team will play extremely hard, share the ball and have fun. Rebounding will go a long way in deciding how well we do,” said Coach Metzger, who sports a 130-78 mark in his seven seasons coaching his alma mater.
Coach Brian Kern takes over the Vandalia program that he once played for and coached many years ago.

After the dismissal of head coach Brian Buscher last spring, the Vandals' program now has a leader who last coached at the varsity high school level in 2005-06, a season in which Vandalia won a regional championship.

He inherits a club that was 16-16 last winter that lost in the first round of the Litchfield Regional Tournament to the hosts.

The Vandals lost five important and productive seniors to graduation.

Six-one senior guard Reid Well, an ABV first team 2A All-South selection, along with Matthew Hagy, Preston Nestrick, Chase McNary and Caydan Hipsher.

Vandalia weathered a brutal non-conference schedule and managed to get back to .500 with some late campaign victories.

Two seniors who started last year return.

Six-one senior Andrew Kelly is back along with 6-2 senior Tanner Robbins.

Those two will be the cornerstones of the Vandalia program this season.

However Coach Kern has some kids coming up that were part of the varsity last season.

Wade Brannon, a 6-2 junior, 6-0 junior Brady Elder, 5-8 junior Isaac Sachan, 6-3 junior Jacob Johnson and 6-1 sophomore Kohner Depew are among the ones that will be wearing the Red and White striped warm-ups when the season starts.

“We will be looking for younger players to step into more important roles. We will be looking for leadership from our two seniors as we find our identity as a team,” said Coach Kern.

In a one year span the Southwestern Birds went from a 9-23 mark to a 16-16 total last winter for head coach Jason Darr.

So optimism is a plenty around this program.

His club showed marked improvement over that period and he is hoping the trend continues.

Southwestern ended up 4-5 in the SCC and they were eliminated from the state tournament by Roxana at the East Alton-Wood River Regional semifinals.

Gone from the squad were some important cogs which represented a lot of minutes.

Quinten Strohbeck, Collin Robinson, Lane Gage, Hank Bouillon and David Watkins were the seniors on the club.

Strohbeck only played a pair of games last season while Gage (6.7 p.p.g.), Robinson (5.5 p.p.g.) and Bouillon (5.3 p.p.g.) were part of balanced scoring for the Birds.

Watkins added three points a game so there are numbers missing heading forward.

Coach Darr will lean on 5-11 senior guard Rocky Darr to guide the ship.

Darr added five points a contest as a junior and will be the teams' point guard on offense.

Six-three senior Logan Keith also returns as he got into most of the varsity games as a junior while 6-0 junior Ryan Lowis is the top returning outside scorer and threat (8.1 p.p.g.) from a year ago.

Greyson Brewer, a 6-0 junior, will add to the lineup this season for Coach Darr with skills around the basket.

However the biggest key to the Birds success will be the improving play of 6-7 junior Ian Brantley.

According to this coach, Brantley can play inside and outside, which will make him a difficult match up for most teams in the SCC.

He averaged 9.9 points and 6.6 rebounds in 2022-23.

“With a big majority of players back from a 16 win season, expectations will be high around Piasa. We have a solid group returning with some dynamic players that can score from multiple positions on the court should make the birds a top contender around the area,” said Coach Darr. “This team can be very good at both ends of the court, if we get kids to buy to take on certain roles for this basketball team. Our big kids can move and run the floor and we should have a guard duo that can score it from the perimeter as well. We are working toward a 20 win season and to compete at the top of the SCC Conference, as well as a regional championship.”
The Carlinville Cavaliers finished just 7-21 overall, 2-7 in the South Central Conference a year ago for head coach David Suits but the kids coming back look to improve on those numbers in 2023-24.

Although three seniors are gone (Ryan Hart, Colton Kostello and Trent Clevenger) from that team that gave Pana a tough game in the first round of the Litchfield Regional.

Hart led the team in scoring (10.4 p.p.g.) last winter as he was the only one averaging double-digits while Clevenger and Kostello were just under three points a night.

An eight-game losing streak during the season was a bit disheartening but they responded with a pair of late season conference wins over Southwestern and Staunton.

Three kids that started for Carlinville return in 2023-24.

Matthew Dunn, 6-1 senior guard, is back for Coach Suits.

Six-two junior guard Dominic Alepra, who netted 9.4 points a game as a sophomore, also returns.

Triston Thompson, 5-10 sophomore guard along with 5-9 senior Cole Sullivan, gives this coach options in the backcourt.

Five-eleven sophomore guard Tate Duckels is another standout who will earn minutes.

Sawyer Smith, a 6-3 sophomore forward, and 6-0 senior forward Cam Naugle, add some size for the Cavaliers.

“Although we are still a young group, we do return a core of our group from last year so from an experience standpoint we will have a much better idea of what we are doing. We have a few seniors that quietly may have a nice impact on our season. We expect our sophomores to really push after a year of being thrown in the fire as freshmen,” said Coach Suits.

For what it's worth the Staunton Bulldogs showed signs late last season that things were getting better.

Behind the play of then junior Braden Buffington, the Bulldogs won a few games but couldn't sustain any sort of winning streak.

Coach Ty Laux had his team in several games last winter with four of the losses being single-digit defeats.

Spin all of those around and Staunton reaches .500.

This season Coach Laux will turn to Buffington and some others to make a move to contend for the league title and to get back to a winning mark.

Buffington is a 6-2 senior now who is approaching some scoring milestones for the program.

Two other starters, 5-9 sophomore Aaron Bodner and 6-2 junior Ethan Sharp gives this club a mix of experienced players.

Coach Laux also mentioned 6-1 junior Ben Atkins, 5-11 junior Ben Atkins, and 6-2 junior Christan Haas.

Bryce Coalson, a 5-11 sophomore, along with a gaggle of freshman ready to play varsity ball right off the bat.

Isiah Laux, a 5-7 freshman guard, along with 5-7 freshman guard Jeremiah Graham will give this team depth.

Coach Laux has other ninth graders ready with 5-9 Luke Moore and 5-7 Lucas Dillon.

“We return our leading scorer and rebounder (Buffington) as he will be a four-year starter at the varsity level. We are going to lean on him a lot for scoring and rebounding. We bring back our starting point (Bodner) as he has improved a lot over the off-season and we are expecting him to lead us this year after having a year of experience under his belt,” said Coach Laux. “We could go 10 deep this year and looking to play a much more uptempo game than in the past. We will be relatively young this year, but we have a group of guys that love the game and love to compete.”

The first season in the South Central Conference last winter turn out pretty good for the North Mac Panthers and head coach TJ Wilson.

The squad ended up a respectable 17-15 overall and 7-2 in the SCC, good enough for second place behind Greenville in the league race.

Despite losing a pair of senior starters from last winter (Reed Lewis, Mick Downs) the Panthers have talent returning from the team that lost in the Auburn Regional semifinals to eventual regional champ Pleasant Plains.

JT Alexander, a 6-5 senior, set a single season rebounding mark at the school and his scoring and rebounding were a high help last winter.

Five-eight senior Dane Vance also returns for the Panthers after starting last season for Coach Wilson.

He is nearing the top of the career assist mark at North Mac.

Payne McLean, a 6-1 junior, and 6-1 Roark Lewis are expected starters.

Six-three senior Keagan Greff and 6-0 Cooper Wilson return.

Greff was a sharpshooter from the outside for the Panthers.

North Mac was on an eight-game win streak when they lost in the regional and this coach wants to build on the late season prosperity.

“We have a small group of senior but they are strong leaders,” said Coach Wilson.