BOYS BB: Western Panthers preview
Nov. 25—Western's boys basketball team won the Class 3A Sectional 20 championship in 2020 and Hoosier Conference championships in 2021 and '22.
The key players from that three-year stretch are largely gone — but that does not mean the Panthers are ready to take a step back.
"I think this is a group of kids that's going to thrive from that underdog role," Western coach Mike Lewis said. "It's definitely going to be one of the smallest teams [of Lewis' six years at the school], but regardless of our height, we can do all the necessary things it takes to win games. We just have to dominate the basics in all that we do.
"As this team grows into that and learns how to win at 7:30, we're going to see a team that is very competitive in the sectional at the end of the year. I'm excited about this team because I think there's a lot of room for growth."
The Panthers return two key players — 6-foot-8 senior center Mitchell Dean and 5-11 senior guard Ian Thurston. Last season, when Western went 13-9, Dean averaged 10.2 points and a team-high 6.1 rebounds per game and shot 54.9% from the field and Thurston scored 4.7 points and shot 38% from 3-point range.
Dean is best known for baseball — he is an All-State pitcher who has signed to play at Louisville — but he is talented on the hardwood as well.
"I told someone the other day, the thing that pops out to me about Mitchell is just how determined he is to be the very best version of himself no matter what he chooses to do. He's just an extremely competitive kid," Lewis said. "There's no doubt he is someone we're going to lean on."
The Panthers have three other seniors — 5-7 guard Dylan Hightower, 5-10 guard Patrick Hobson and 5-11 guard Cayden McClure. All three saw spot minutes last season.
Lewis is mixing in players from last season's JV team, which went 19-1. Those players include juniors Amari Sutton (6-2), Ian Beatty (6-2), Logan Nelson (6-2) and Tate Heston (6-4) and sophomores Hudson Biggs (6-2), Kyler Norman (5-7), Aidan Quillen (5-10) and Sam Thurston (6-0). Hudson Biggs is currently injured.
Carter Biggs, a 5-8 freshman, is also in the mix for possible playing time.
"Practices have been really competitive because we have 12 or 13 guys, all trying to fight for varsity minutes," Lewis said. "I think this is a group that doesn't really care who gets the credit and is going to try to win by committee. It's a very competitive group of kids so they're going to play very hard."
Lewis hopes that competitiveness shows on the defensive end. The Panthers' recent run of success was fueled by defense. They held opponents to 47.0 points per game in the 2019-20 season, 46.3 in 2020-21 and 46.9 last season.
Lewis is confident an offensive identity will develop.
"Outside of Mitchell, we're going to be pretty perimeter oriented, but we have some kids that really understand how to play the game. We're going to have multiple kids that can drive it, multiple kids that can shoot it, and these kids do a really nice job of sharing the basketball," he said.
"The question marks for us are going to be, how do we respond defensively against a physical team, and can we keep teams off the glass?"
The IHSAA's sectional realignment moved Western from Sectional 20 to Sectional 22. Benton Central, Twin Lakes and West Lafayette made the same move (BC was the Sectional 20 runner-up last season) and Frankfort, North Montgomery and Rensselaer round out the new grouping. Lewis sees it as a balanced and competitive grouping.
Frankfort is the host. Western played in sectionals at Case Arena from 1998-2011 — the first 14 years of the class tournament era. Five of Western's nine all-time sectional titles came at Frankfort.
Bryan Gaskins is the Tribune's sports editor. He may be reached at bryan.gaskins@kokomotribune.com or 765-454-8567.
