By Amanda Perkins
The Skyline High School boys’ basketball team is hoping to build on its Class 2 District championship and a trip to the quarterfinals in 2015-16.
But the Tigers lost six lettermen, including three starters, forwards Dylan Mountain and Josh Dansby and guard Chase Phillips.
Mountain, who is playing college football at Southwest Baptist University, was All-Mid-Lakes Conference second team, All-District, KJEL All-Star, SWMO All-Star and MBCA Class 2 All-State, while Davis was named All-District.
Another key contributor from last season was forward Madison Davis, who is playing football for Evangel University.
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“The three starters, plus Madison Davis and Speed Ford, will be tough to replace,” Skyline head coach Ryan Yates said. “They all played a lot of minutes for us and contributed in different, beneficial ways. Phillips ran the offense; Ford guarded hard and shot the ball well; Davis was very athletic and could guard and play inside/out, offensively; Dansby gave us a good post defender and a good off-the-ball guy on offense and Mountain could guard, score, and was a tremendous leader for us.”
Of the Tigers’ two returning starters, Shawn Bryan is the lone senior. The 6-foot upperclassman averaged 8.5 points per game, 5.4 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.5 steals.
Skyline, which went 17-12 overall and 0-6 in the Mid-Lakes Conference, also returns 5-10 junior Brant Gideon. Gideon, a good shooter who will be running the offense, averaged 8.5 points, 2.0 rebounds, 1.0 assists and 1.3 steals per game.
“My expectations for those two are for them to lead this young group,” Yates said. “They need to outwork everyone on our team and also be vocal leaders. Those two and Mason Lile all got significant minutes for us last season during the season as well as in the postseason. I expect Lile to also help push our younger guys. He has the experience and ability to do so.”
The Tigers, who averaged 63.7 points, 27.8 rebounds, shot 51.9 percent, made 115 3-pointers, 13.8 assists and 9 steals per game, will also be counting on returning lettermen 6-5 junior Marshall Cox and 5-9 sophomore Paden Hodges.
Yates will have plenty of depth with 11 newcomers on the scene. Justin Sons, a 6-3 senior, will give the Tigers a large presence on offense and defense; Doug Stidham is a 5-7 senior who will compete for minutes at guard. Other newcomers include Trevor Rowland, 5-8 junior; Garrett Wisdom, 6-0 junior; Chris Logan, 5-8 freshman; Dax Beem, 5-8 freshman; Gage Gunter, 5-8 freshman; Ethan Edwards, 5-9 freshman; Bradley Curnutt, 6-2 freshman; Connor Logan, 5-8 freshman and Preston Scott, 5-7 freshman.
A couple of new faces will look to contribute as well: Orville Lanuzo, a 5-7 junior guard from the Philippines and Dalton Dorrell, a 5-10 freshman forward from Versailles.
“I look for this group to battle hard, compete every time they step on the court both practice and game, and to play to the best of their ability,” Yates said.
