NTL BOYS' BASKETBALL: YOUTHFUL TOWANDA LOOK TO BE MUCH IMPROVED THIS SEASON (2024-12-02)

BY CHRIS MANNING
Northern Tier Sports Report
Towanda boys’ basketball is back in a familiar spot, with just one senior and bevy of younger players - caught between rebuilding and competing. Still, even with just four players in the top two classes, coach Landon Henry feels the experience the younger players picked up last year will be valuable.

“I think a lot of the guys, particularly in our younger grades, got a lot of varsity experience last year, which we think should help us this year,” Henry said. “Overall, we’re just excited about the group, and how much they like playing together, and how much they like playing basketball. We played a good amount this summer, and we’re happy with where things are headed.”

Connor Barnes will be the lone senior this season, and will look to lead the team the same way Teagan Irish did last season.

“It’s not fun because I always grew up with all my friends who used to play with me,” Barnes said. “I like the challenge, I like facing adversity with it, because it just shows how good a leader I can be.”

They’ll need to replace not just Irish’s leadership, but also his 21 PPG.

“It’s the intangibles that are going to be greatly missed,” Henry said about Irish. “Just the consistency of a leader, how hard he works at practice every day, the voice that he brings. He was such an extension of our coaching staff as far as just echoing some of the things that we pride ourselves in on the program, and what we try to do on a daily basis. It’s going to be a challenge for some of the younger faces to step up and kind of step into that role, and have a voice to uplift the whole group.”

Bayley Poll is their top scorer coming back at 8 PPG. He’s primarily known as a 3-point shooter but has looked to diversify his game.

“I’ve been working on trying to get to the rim more, and free throws, and even more shooting,” said Poll.

They don’t expect just one player to pick up all the slack.

“With the team being young we have a lot of players that can step up,” Poll remarked.

Markell Garner, Darrius Farrell, Ben Shrawder, Landon Clark, and Graham Welles all had roles on last year’s team, and they’ll look to have bigger roles this time around.

“We’re not going to have just one individual score,” Barnes said. “We’ve got a lot of people we can trust to score the ball, so it’s not going to be up to that one person to do it for us.”

They boast plenty of size with Barnes, Garner, and Poll with Farrell leading the backcourt.

“We have a lot of guys asking for it,” Farrell said. “Me, Landong, Bayley, Connor, and the bench is really good, too. We’ve got a lot of guys that can score.”

They know they’ll need to rely on defense until they figure things out offensively.

“We want to have man to man defensive to be our identity,” said Barnes. “Our goal the whole time is to have a lower average than last year.”

Looking ahead to the season there are plenty of teams influx around the division - Towanda, Wyalusing, NP-Mansfield, Wellsboro, even league unbeaten Troy will have players to replace.

That gives Towanda hope they can climb the standings a little bit.

“It’s so hard to win, and I think our guys are aware that no matter who you’re playing, everybody prepares in different ways,” Henry said. “I think at the varsity level, you’ve just got to mentally come ready to play, and anybody could win on any given night. So just showing up, putting our best foot forward will do that with the guys that we have.”

This group spent a lot of time together in the off-season, and that gives them confidence that, despite their youth, they’ll turn a corner this season.

“We feel that we can beat most teams in the league this year, and be competitive with the rest,” Poll said.

ROSTER

Connor Barnes (12)

Landon Clark (11)

Darrius Farrell (11)

Bayley Poll (11)

Noah Dalton (10)

Graham Welles (10)

Lucas Vincent (10)

Markell Garner (10)

Benjamin Shrawder (10)

John Hemphill (10)

Hudson Stevens (10)

Evan Young (10)

Ryan Maynard (9)

Lincoln Nash (9)

Finn Brennan (9)

Huntley Thompson (9)

Josh Maye (9)

Keegan Stroud (9)

Owen Masteller (9)

Declan Anderson (9)

SCHEDULE

Dec. 6 at Candor, 7 p.m.

Dec. 9 at Montrose, 7 p.m.

Dec. 10 at Sayre, 7 p.m.

Dec. 12 vs Williamson, 7 p.m.

Dec. 13 at Muncy Tournament

Dec. 14 at Muncy Tournament

Dec. 17 at NPL, 7 p.m.

Dec. 19 vs Athens, 7 p.m.

Dec. 23 at Sullivan County, 12:30 p.m.

Jan. 10 at Wyalusing, 7 p.m.

Jan. 7 vs Troy, 7 p.m.

Jan. 9 at Wellsboro, 7 p.m.

Jan. 14 vs NPM, 7 p.m.

Jan. 16 vs Wyalusing, 7 p.m.

Jan. 18 vs Notre Dame, 1:30 p.m.

Jan. 22 at CV, 7 p.m.

Jan. 24 vs Canton, 7 p.m.

Jan. 27 at NPM, 7 p.m.

Jan. 29 vs NEB, 7 p.m.

Jan. 31 at Athens, 7 p.m.

Feb. 5 at Troy, 7 p.m.

Feb. 7 vs Wellsboro, 7 p.m.

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