Pioneer

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

ROYAL CENTER — Drew McKaig led the Pioneer boys basketball team in scoring, rebounding, assists and steals last year, but he graduated, and four other seniors left with him from a team that went 9-14.

Any concerns one might have had over whether Pioneer would have enough ballhandling without

McKaig and fellow graduate Brayden Erickson might be alleviated with the emergence of a returnee and a move-in from another school.

The move-in is Aidan Quillen, a 5-11 senior guard who averaged 7 points per game last year when he played for Western. Though he might be new to the team, he is familiar with the Pioneer community: His father Patrick is the principal at Pioneer Elementary School and will be a volunteer assistant coach on Darren McKaig’s staff.

“He’s gotten varsity minutes the last several years there, and he’s going to do a lot of the ballhandling for us, and he’s a good shooter, and he can score in the paint,” coach McKaig said. “He’s really going to help our team.”

The returnee is Micah Rans, a 5-8 junior who allowed Drew McKaig to play off the ball last season. Now he will pair with Quillen in the backcourt.

“He and Aidan … we have two pretty natural guards there,” coach McKaig said. “They can either run the point or the ‘2’ (shooting guard) spot. They’re both decent shooters and scorers, and they can both handle the ball really well. And they’re both athletic. So it’s going to be a good guard combo.”

The leading returning scorer is senior Lucas Perry, who at 6-1 often navigated his way around the paint against taller opponents.

“When you become a senior and you have been through all the battles in practice and in games, I think you do toughen up,” coach McKaig said of Perry. “And he knows the physicality we’re going to face. We’ve looked at some of our more physical games last year against taller people, and he knows he’s going to have to be quick and shot fake and be ready to go up at the right time or kick it back out. He’s developed a really good understanding of the game, and he’s helping the younger kids understand that too. He’s developed into a pretty good leader for us.”

Other seniors include 6-1 guard guard Ryan Looker, 5-10 sharpshooting forward Noah Miller and 6-1 forward Lukas Collins.

“Yes, if he doesn’t rush it,” coach McKaig said when asked if he would like Miller to shoot more. “He squares up beautifully, but when he rushes it and he doesn’t take that extra split second and he shoots a little bit before he squares up, then they don’t go in. But if he has that extra second, he can square up, he pretty much has the green light.”

In addition to Rans, another key junior could be 5-11 forward J.J. Solano.

“He likes to do the dirty work,” coach McKaig said. “He likes to block out. He likes to get rebounds. He doesn’t care about scoring and whatever. Sometimes it’s really nice to have somebody do the dirty work in the game with everybody else, so I could see him getting some minutes this year.”

But having said that, the team’s key group could be its sophomores. That group includes Mason Shaver, who at 6-3 is the team’s tallest player, and guards Lane Weldy, Brodie Howard and Shiloh Rine.

“Shiloh Rine could start for us,” McKaig said. “He’s got a physical body that we need on the floor. We don’t have a lot of height, so we’re going to have to be physical with players. … Mason Shaver also has a big body, and we’re just going to need him in there too. If Mason is in the game, he’d be in the post, and Shiloh would be on the wing.”

McKaig also praised Weldy and Howard.

“Lane Weldy and Brodie Howard have both shown a lot of good things,” coach McKaig said. “It’s going to be really hard to know who gets playing time because we’ve had a lot of guys show good things. They’re both good shooters. They both move the ball well. It may come down to defense actually.”

A freshman who is listed on both the JV and varsity rosters is 5-10 guard Phillip McFatridge.

Typically playing a 2-3 zone 32 minutes a game, Pioneer reduced its defensive scoring average from 53.9 two years ago to 51.5 last year. Coach McKaig was asked if they can maintain that improved scoring average.

Much of it could have to do with improved ballhandling. If Pioneer can avoid turnovers, that will prevent opponents from getting out in transition and getting easy baskets.

“We’ve talked about and looked at a lot of stats from last year, and at the beginning of the season, we were averaging over 20 turnovers, and we were losing those games even though our shooting percentages weren’t that bad,” coach McKaig said. “And then at the end of the year, when we beat North Judson, we only had three turnovers that game, and we won in overtime. So obviously, if we had turned the ball over even 10 times, we would have lost that game. So yes, it’s a huge emphasis that we are going to try and start the year and keep our turnovers at 10 or less and know that that’s going to help everything.”

McKaig spoke of how the players seamlessly fit into their roles regardless of whether they are sophomores trying to make a bigger impression or seniors trying to seize an opportunity for more playing time.

“Luckily, we have a good sophomore class that were freshmen last year, so they were part of the program,” coach McKaig said. “They really played well in some JV games at the end of the year. They really seemed to come together and have good chemistry. So it seems like they’ve taken a natural step up, and we’ll have some sophomores just kind of naturally contribute to the varsity team. We also have five seniors, and four of them have been around, and they know what we’re doing, and they just might have been waiting on playing time, but they knew what we needed. … I feel like we have a more natural lineup this year with knowing who our two guards are, knowing who our two forwards are and knowing who’s going to play underneath.

“That seemed a lot easier than last year. It seemed like we needed Drew to maybe be underneath some, but we also needed him to handle the ball. So it seems a lot more natural this year.”

Pioneer boys basketball schedule

Nov. 26 – at Northwestern, 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 3 – vs. Lewis Cass, 8 p.m. (Cass County Invitational semifinal)

Dec. 6 – vs. Caston or Logansport (Cass County Invitational at Logansport)

Dec. 13 – vs. Triton, 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 14 – at North Miami, 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 20 – vs. Argos, 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 30-Jan. 4 – Indiana Kitchen Classic

Jan. 10 – at Frontier, 7:30 p.m.

Jan. 11 – vs. Faith Christian, 7 p.m.

Jan. 17 – at DeMotte Christian, 7:30 p.m.

Jan. 18 – at Carroll (Flora), 7:30 p.m.