CL Hawks Boys Basketball Wrap-Up & All-Time Stats
Canyon Lake Basketball finished their first season under new coach Monte Cole securing 11 wins which was 3 more than the past two seasons combined.
Coach Cole came into his first year stressing defense which was not the forte in the previous campaigns. Those last two years had CL with an average of 19 points per outing of being outscored compared to a much improved 8.1 points per game.
That 11 point improvement was instrumental in racking up 7 more wins. That was not the whole story tho….this past season was posed with a team that did not have a mind-set of how to finish a game and that was seen in losing 9 battles by 6 points or less.
“I know that we lost a lot of games by 3 or fewer points and even more with a lead late in the game,” Coach Cole lamented. “That just comes down to making the plays at the end of a game. It’s really a difficult to simulate that type of situation (we worked on it in practice) with the emotions and fatigue of the entire game. That’s something we will work on extensively before next season.”
Four of those contests played out during the district part of the schedule and that could have easily helped give the Hawks a post-season berth. The Lake’s defense had their 3rd best all-time defensive effort in allowing 49.5 points.
“Honestly, I knew it was going to be a process with shifting the sides mentally on offense and defense,” Head Coach Monte Cole stated. “I wasn’t sure how quickly they would pick up terminology, concepts, etc. The kids picked up a lot and showed stretches of being really good. Doing it consistently is the next step.”
The Hawks will lose 29% of their offense and 35% rebounding to graduating seniors. Adrian Duque was a 4 year player for the varsity and had the ability to contribute in several areas as the 6th man this season.
“The Seniors are a great group of kids and you can tell that have great families and were raised the right way,” Cole commented. “Guys bought into their roles and never heard a complaint all year. I told them they are a big part of any and all success the program has in the future since they were the first group to help lay the foundation. They’re part of the CL Basketball family forever.”
Taking baby steps as the growth and maturity for a Canyon Lake team that will aspire for being able to eat at the adult table when the next family reunion comes calling has to be a paramount goal.
“This year was the first step and the kids took a big step,” Coach Cole said. “That said., I’m expecting for us to take an even bigger step next year. We’re expecting to be a playoff team next year with having contributors back and some good pieces coming up from possibly both 9th and JV teams. We’ll play in quite a few tournaments this Spring, Summer and Fall to keep them playing together as much as possible.”
That was certainly a truism with the addition of sophomore point guard Jaxson Jeter who led the team with 79 assists and 56 steals. Carter Williams played last year as a freshman and you could see his growth into this year as this multi sport star contributed in leading the team with 33 blocks and rebounds 181 as he also filled the stat sheet with 32 assists (4th), 50 steals (2nd), and 236 points (2nd).
Newcomer Dalton Stromquist continued to improve throughout this season by becoming more adept in scoring and adding height which can’t be taught.
Mario Aguilar was a different player comparing his Sophomore to Junior campaign. His overall skill set was immense as he literally could play point or in the paint with ease.
Aguilar returns next season after leading CL with 327 points, 44 three pointers, 38 free throws. Finishing 3rd in rebounds (169), 2nd in assists (62), 3rd in steals (40) and 2nd in block shots (12) while missing just one game.
Finally, when district starts is a time for seeing improvement and a stat that had a megaphone to announce was comparing the past two years.
Last season, the Hawks were outscored 251 points in district contests compared to reducing that number by 125 points. Hence, being within 6 points in 4 losses.
Coach Cole closed, “That stat tells me we’re moving in the right direction. We were potentially about 6 possessions away from being a playoff team this year if we had been better at closing games. It’ll be a tough but fun offseason for these guys with everything we do being competitive.”
Hope springs eternal and this spring-fall that springing hopefully comes of age through maturity on the hard court.
Thanks Coach and Go Hawks!!
ALL-TIME BASKETBALL STATS (for Andrew Riali) TOTAL POINTS 3pt GOALS FREE THROWS Parker Mott 929 Parker Mott 160 Parker Mott 205 Rico Griffen 794 Andrew Riali 122 Rory Preiss 154 Rory Preiss 760 Colton Winters 81 Rico Griffin 142 Andrew Riali 594 Chris Green 77 Tyler Pauly 124 Matt Magness 555 Jacob Ramirez 76 Andrew Riali 121 Brandon Ward 498 Garrett Winters 71 Matt Magness 120 Sam Schimank 409 Sam Schimank 61 Tyler Williams 104 Stuart Lowry 407 Matt Magness 52 Christian Pena 102 Caleb Kreiger 406 Mario Aguilar 50 Brandon Berger 90 Mario Aguilar 398 Brandon Ward 49 Gerrit Wilkins 82 Patrick McAuliffe 82 TOTAL REBOUNDS STEALS ASSISTS Rico Griffin 558 Parker Mott 169 Tyler Pauly 214 Rory Preiss 499 Rico Griffin 124 Doug Hubnik 187 Sean Nolan 368 Rory Preiss 123 Rico Griffin 156 Tyler Williams 357 Tyler Pauly 81 Matt Magness 136 Heath McDonough 338 Carter Williams 80 Parker Mott 123 Trent MacRoberts 317 Neal Whitehead 78 Rory Preiss 113 Griffen Williams 317 Tanner Jones 76 Gerrit Wilkins 113 Andrew Riali 296 Skyler Tschoepe 69 Zack Taliaferro 103 Skyler Tschoepe 249 Matt Magness 69 Tanner Jones 90 Caimen McDonough 247 Trent MacRoberts 66 Brandon Ward 87 BLOCKS Tyler Williams 96 Sean Nolan 85 Peyton McMullen 60 Caleb Kreiger 59 Trent MacRoberts 48 Neal Whitehead 47 Rory Preiss 35 Carter Williams 33 Skyler Tschoepe 29 Eric Nelson 29