Bulldog Boys Basketball Preview
THREE MILBANK AREA seniors will take on leadership roles for the Bulldog boys varsity basketball squad this season. They are, left to right, Evan Erickson, Max McCulloch and Noah Steinlicht.
Bulldog Boys Basketball Team Returns Three Senior Players
The Milbank Area boys basketball team will take to the court for the 2019-2020 season with seniors Noah Steinlicht, Evan Erickson and Max McCulloch on the roster.
The Bulldogs’ season tip-off will be against Waubay-Summit on Friday, December 13, at Summit. The squad follows the season opener with a contest Saturday, December 14, against Lennox in Milbank.
Logan Diede returns for his third year as coach and will be assisted by Ryan Scoular and Jade Miller.
Milbank Area finished with a 7-13 overall record and dropped a Region 1A first-round game to Groton last year.
Juniors Mason Riley and Will Cummins are returning starters along with senior McCulloch. Sophomore Bennett Schwenn also saw varsity action last year.
According to Diede, the seniors are all hungry to compete and each brings something to the table the team can utilize. “McCulloch brings size and great athleticism that will help us in a number of ways on both sides of the floor. Steinlicht has a high motor and can make things happen with his effort and hustle,” added Diede. “Erickson can really shoot it so we will try to get him open looks with our style of play. All three bring good leadership qualities for our young team.”
“We will be a young team again with some good athletes,” said Diede. “We have some key guys coming back with varsity experience and some young guys that are hungry to get going. We will lean on those guys to help us throughout the season.”
According to Diede, the team needs to do a better job of screening and having good space on the floor which will lead to a good chance of shooting percentages improving.
“The goal on the offensive end is to get high quality shots and live with the results. On the defensive end we need to continue to improve guarding and making stops,” said Diede. “The better the job we do taking and contesting shots the better off we will be. We have some good athletes to go get rebounds, but we must focus on getting good positioning to box out and secure the ball.”
Other players vying for varsity time are:
Juniors – Mason Riley, Will Cummins, Carter Hartman and Tanner Mertens.
Sophomores – Karson Weber, Stevie Ash, Bennett Schwenn, Kellen Hoeke, Cade Howard and Ryker Trevett.
The Bulldogs will compete in Region 1A against Aberdeen Roncalli, Groton Area, Redfield, Sisseton, Tiospa Zina and Webster Area.
“We play a very tough schedule so our primary goal will be to improve all year long to be in the best position come region time, as our region is wide open,” added Diede. “We need to show up and compete every night out as our schedule won’t allow anything less. It will be fun to watch our young men compete and see them get better in the process.”
