By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Despite playing well defensively on most occasions, Joplin’s boys basketball team struggled to score last season and it contributed to a 4-23 campaign that head coach Nick Pfeifer described as a “battle for us.”
“Defense is definitely the priority when it comes to building our program and we know we have to bring the defensive effort every single game to give ourselves a chance,” Pfeifer said. “For the most part we played with great effort defensively but we put a lot of pressure on our defense when we couldn’t score the basketball and that resulted in not very many wins.”
The Eagles averaged about 46 points per game and only topped 60 in three contests, but Pfeifer said there were positives to take away from the season.
“We continued to improve and get better,” he said. “As a first-year head coach at Joplin, I thought we started to see some of the things that will be really important to us moving forward and as we build on last season. Hopefully we can take some momentum from a pretty strong summer and a pretty strong offseason here and build on the positives from last year.”
One big loss to graduation is Whit Hafer, now a tight end for Missouri’s football team. He averaged 6.5 points and a team-high 6.2 rebounds and nearly a block a game. But the Eagles return almost all of the rest of their production from last season.
Returning this winter is a group of seniors led by Trenton Gage, a third team pick on the All-Central Ozark Conference team who led Joplin with 9.7 points per game to go along with 2.5 rebounds and better than 1 assist and 1 steal. Cooper Williams, who’s started the last two years, returns after scoring 6 points and grabbing 2.3 rebounds per game along with 1.2 assists. Aiden Scourten averaged 2.9 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1 assist. Collis Jones, in 11 games, averaged 9.1 points, 5.5 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.5 steals. And Miles Hogan returns after he appeared in eight games.
“Trenton Gage led us in scoring and then you have Cooper Williams who’s been a starter really for two years and Aiden Scourten had a really nice summer and did some nice things towards the end of last year,” Pfeifer said. “Collis Jones certainly has some potential to be a really nice player for us and is a good athlete. Those are the guys we’re going to lean on. That senior group we’re really going to lean on.”
Joplin’s junior class includes Brecken Green, who played in 26 games and averaged 8.2 points and 1.5 rebounds. David Bhend played in 25 games and averaged 2.8 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.3 assists. Fred Taylor averaged 5.7 points and 3.6 rebounds in seven games, and Hudson Matthiesen saw action in 18 games and John Jasper played in 17.
“Brecken Green is a guy who can shoot the basketball for us and we need that,” Pfeifer said. “David Bhend started some games for us. Hudson Matthiesen is another guy I think can have a really nice season, he’s our tallest player and one of our biggest bodies. John Jasper adds some muscle and strength in the post and that’s going to be important for us. Those guys all saw a lot of minutes, and then Fred Taylor was injured most of last year and I think he’ll have a really nice year for us. He’ll have the ball in his hands a lot and has some really explosive tendencies.”
Pfeifer said the team’s overall numbers should be a strength, especially with the competition in practice that offers. He said natural competition is the best way to get players to develop, and he hopes to find a good mix of Eagles who can be aggressive on both ends of the floor.
“I hope they score more, that’s a really simple way of putting it,” he said. “You always need guys who can shoot the basketball and we’ve got some guys I think can get downhill and have some good quickness. I think we can really drive the basketball well but to be able to really maximize that you need to be able to knock in some shots. Brecken Green, Fred Taylor, all those guys we need to get to the paint and to the rim and their jobs are a lot easier if we can shoot it. Even our bigs like Hudson can shoot a little bit so hopefully we can spread the floor and get to the rim and utilize some of that quickness and athleticism.”
Joplin hosts a November 21 jamboree with Nevada, East Newton and New Heights Christian and opens the regular season against McDonald County and Pittsburg (Kan.) before competing in the 78th Annual Carthage Invitational. The Eagles once again host their Kaminsky Classic in January which should feature an 8-team field, and they’ll play in the Pittsburg Invitational later in the month.
“With those teams that have joined our conference, there are a lot of good basketball schools in obviously Kickapoo and Central and Lebanon’s had good teams in the past and Parkview certainly as well,” Pfeifer said. “You toss in what we had last year with Nixa and Webb City and there’s just a lot of good teams in our league, no doubt. We’ve got to be able to compete with those guys on a nightly basis.
“We know that defensively we have to be really, really strong every night and that’s never going to change,” he said. “That’s going to be something we hang our hat on. We’re looking forward to seeing which guys are going to step up and be able to score the basketball for us and be able to do it consistently. The other great challenge for us is can we do it efficiently and consistently. I think that’s going to determine how our season goes but we’re looking forward to seeing those guys step up and we have the option to have guys fill in those roles and be pretty good at it.”
