The fact that the Southeast boys basketball team is sitting at 5-0 in the holiday break may be surprising to some but not really to the Lancers themselves.
This considering that in years past, the Lancers have gone 0-5, 0-6 and 1-5.
“This is our year and we have been this far with our ups and downs,” said senior post player Matt Renn. “We have started 0-5, 0-6 and 1-5 but we have four returning starters with experience and I came off the bench last year.”
Renn is one of five seniors that bring at least two years of experience to the team.
Another senior is fellow post Andrew Crumpacker.
Crumpacker has been the Lancers’ stalwart inside and has averaged double-digit points in each of the first five games for Southeast.
He is another that is not that surprised that Southeast has begun the season with an unblemished mark.
“No, not really,” Crumpacker said. “We went into every game with a plan and we just knew we could do it.”
Coupled with Daniel Rank, Ryan Martin and Toby Ulery, the Lancers have an all-senior starting five that have had extensive playing experience over the last four years.
The person holding it all together is head coach Luke Witt.
“I think it is a testament to the type of kids that we have,” Witt said. “They have put in the time and they are close-knit and believe in each other.”
The Lancers began their season by sweeping through the Route 66 Classic in Baxter Springs.
“We came out and we were down at half in our first two games,” Crumpacker said. “We had never started out 3-0 before and it was a great feeling to be able to do that.”
In their final game of the tournament, Southeast blitzed Diamond, Mo., by almost 30 points.
“There were some good teams in that tournament but we were tired of practicing each other and we were ready for game experience,” Renn said.
In addition to their senior-laden starting five, the Lancers also rely on the bench play of Dalton Powell, Jake Thompson and Andy Brennon — all of which also have had varsity playing experience over the years.
“We have a little bit of depth and that really helps us out a lot,” Renn said.
With so much experience, there is still not that one person that is considered a leader on the team.
In fact, according to Crumpacker, they are all leaders on the floor.
“Most of us have been playing so long together, it hasn’t really come to the point where there is just one leader,” Crumpacker said. “There hasn’t been and I don’t think there will be.”
Southeast knows that the road only gets tougher once they come back from the holiday break.
The Lancers will start the season back up against Northeast then face Pittsburg.
“I’m not focused at all about going undefeated,” Witt said. “Northeast is playing very good basketball and every game we play from here on out will be an absolute battle and we know that.
“Our league teams will have things prepared for our big kids,” Witt said. “But, Matt and Andrew will do the things to get the ball outside and we have to focus on getting them to do different things in the second half of the season.
“As a coach, I am looking at Northeast and nothing else. We have to do a good job of preparing for them and then we will move on to Pittsburg.”
With that tough league schedule coming up, both Crumpacker and Renn know that they will be matched up better with the likes of Girard’s Tanner Poppe, Colgan’s Jesse Watt and Galena’s Jacob Gougler.
“We have two big guys and most other teams have just one so we have more than one guy post up,” Renn said. “He can keep their big guy outside or I can do that so, there are a lot of options.”
“We can still get the ball inside but we will have to find other ways of doing it,” Crumpacker said. “Our guards are also very good and can find ways to shoot the ball outside as well.”
As for how long the undefeated trend continues ... that all depends on the Lancers themselves.
“It will depend on how we come back,” Renn said. “We may go even longer undefeated but we can’t slack off. Being where we are, everyone is out gunning for us and they want to beat us so we have to just work harder and harder.”
Matthew Clark can be reached at matthew.clark@morningsun.net or at 620-231-2600, Ext. 140
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