NTL BOYS' BASKETBALL: WYALUSING LOOKS TO HAVE BOUNCE BACK SEASON (2024-12-02)

BY CHRIS MANNING
Northern Tier Sports Report
It will definitely be a year of change for Wyalusing boys’ basketball as they look to replace their outgoing backcourt that were staples for the last two seasons. However, they return much of their front court to lead them this season.

“We’re excited,” said Wyalusing coach Brent Keyes. “We’ve been having really good practices, really trying to take our time to implement our stuff, and really go back and teach. We kind of have a young group mixed with some older guys, but definitely trying to really reteach, and take our time with that as we build towards the season.”

They have to replace 30 of their 45 PPG from last season with the graduation of Trehnon Hugo, Nick Vanderpool, and Parker Petlock, but have a good place to start with their leading 3-point shooter from a year ago, Hunter House.

“It feels good knowing coach can depend on me for something like that,” House said about marksmanship. “With having a bigger role with the team I’ll be looking to score in many different ways this year, other than just shooting like last year. We’ve got really good chemistry this year, so we’re excited to get back out there.”

They also return do-it-all forward Zibiah Walton, who averaged 5.9 PPG, 4.6 RPG, and 1 BPG.

“I’ve been working hard all summer long, trying to prepare my self for the new season,” said Walton. “I really worked on my cardio. I joined cross-country this year so I could get in better shape, and I really worked on my shooting and dribbling.”

Those two, along with Will McBride, are the three returnees who saw the most action a year ago. They’ll be joined by fellow seniors Ashton VandeMark, and Gavin VandeMark.

“We’re definitely looking for an increased role for those senior returning letter winners, as I’m sure a lot of teams are,” Keyes said. “I’m hoping we can find ways to get them involved offensively, hoping that they can give us some consistency. Then, beyond that, we’re going to have to kind of piece it together, and figure it out as we go, but we’re kind of excited about that, the opportunity to do that as coaches and as a team.”

Most of their incoming guards are underclassmen with six of the seven sophomores guards.

“It’s going to be interesting,” remarked Keyes. “I got a lot of guys that haven’t had the opportunity, so one, it’s exciting for them with a new opportunity, but then two, for us, we have a lot of sophomores and even a couple freshmen in the program this year who are going to get to contribute, and that’s exciting for us this year, and looking forward as well.”

They did a lot over the summer and fall so Keyes feels, despite their roster turnover, they’ve been able to hit the ground running.

“It was definitely beneficial to play this fall,” he said. “I think as we go forward we’ll try to do that in the off season more. I found out more about our personnel, and I also found out more about what we want to do offensively, and defensively, and now we’re going back and reteaching, tweaking what we’re doing, but throwing a lot of at the wall, and just seeing what sticks.”

Last year’s team didn’t find their groove until late in the season, going 5-19 overall but 3-1 in their final four games.

“Coach is really hammering home that our biggest goal is to make it back to the district playoffs,” House said. “Win at least 11 games, and get our selves back there.”

They lost a lot of winnable games until their final spurt at the end, the Rams feel they learned a lot from those losses.

“We learned that we have to stay under control, and when times get hot, and it’s starting to not go our way, we’ve got to learn to be able to keep our heads, and stay in the game,” explained Walton.

The league is filled with a lot of teams in their shoes, team’s with smaller senior classes and relying on underclassmen. That should make for plenty of exciting nights.

“We feel like, year in and year out, we have a program that’s been competitive,” Keyes said. “We’d like to stay competitive, we’d like to see growth this year. I want us to continue to grow, and as we grow, I want to see some of those wins, us learning how to win, and seeing if we can win some of those close games that we lost last year, and be relevant in the playoff race.”

ROSTER

Ashton VandeMark (12)

Gavin VandeMark (12)

Hunter House (12)

Will McBride (12)

Zabiah Walton (12)

Mason Culver (11)

Myles Kershner (10)

Parker Cunningham (10)

Bradyn Johnson (10)

Shay Gartland (10)

Jared VandeMark (10)

Owen Brown (10)

Tyler Caplan (10)

Aidan Neiley (9)

Noah Kilmer (9)

SCHEDULE

BOYS’ BASKETBALL

Dec. 6 at Blue Ridge, 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 7 vs Susquehanna at Blue Ridge, 1:30 p.m.

Dec. 10 at Canton, 7 p.m.

Dec. 12 vs NEB, 7 p.m.

Dec. 17 at Sayre, 7 p.m.

Dec. 19 at Troy, 7 p.m.

Dec. 27 at Hughesville Tournament

Dec. 28 at Hughesville Tournament

Jan. 2 vs Towanda, 7 p.m.

Jan. 7 vs Wellsboro, 7 p.m.

Jan. 9 vs NPM, 7 p.m.

Jan. 14 at Athens, 7 p.m.

Jan. 16 at Towanda, 7 p.m.

Jan. 18 vs East Juniata, 1:30 p.m.

Jan. 22 vs Williamson, 7 p.m.

Jan. 24 at NPL, 7 p.m.

Jan. 27 vs Athens, 7 p.m.

Jan. 29 vs CV, 7 p.m.

Jan. 31 vs Troy, 7 p.m.

Feb. 5 at Wellsboro, 7 p.m.

Feb. 7 at NPM, 7 p.m.

Feb. 11 vs Sullivan County, 7 p.m.

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