It will be a reloading year for the Lyman High School boys’ basketball team. The Eagles graduated seven seniors and all five starters from last year’s team that went 17-9 and finished fourth at the Class 3A state tournament. But head coach Kevin Lueck, now in his sixth season, believes his team will come a long way from the start of the season until the end.
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LYMAN – It will be a reloading year for the Lyman High School boys’ basketball team.
The Eagles graduated seven seniors and all five starters from last year’s team that went 17-9 and finished fourth at the Class 3A state tournament.
But head coach Kevin Lueck, now in his sixth season, believes his team will come a long way from the start of the season until the end.
“Even though it might be a little frustrating at first, by the end of the season, I think we’re going to be ok,” Lueck said. “I think by the time we get to regionals, we can be competitive. I think we can be in a situation where we can do some good things.”
Lyman went a perfect 6-0 in the 3A West-South Quadrant to earn the No. 1 seed at the regional tournament last season. At regionals Lyman rolled to a 74-37 win against Powell (No. 4 North) in the opening round. The Eagles then defeated (No. 3 South) Star Valley, 40-34, in the semifinals before claiming a 51-50 win against Riverton (No. 1 North) in the championship game.
Lyman (No. 1 West) claimed a 51-47 win against Torrington (No. 4 East) in the first round at state. The Eagles followed with a 51-30 loss to eventual state runner-up Worland (No. 2 East) in the semifinals and ended the season with a 59-47 loss to Douglas (No. 1 East) in the third-place game.
Lyman graduated two All-State players from the 2016-17 campaign in True Lueck (13 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 3.5 apg, 3.4 spg), and Preston Quinney (14.2 ppg, 5.0 rpg). The Eagles also lost Damian Chandler (9.8 ppg), Kolton Rogers (8.3 ppg, 5.2 rpg) and Bryton Bluemel (7.0 ppg) to graduation.
“We have a huge group of seniors that we lost last year,” senior Ben Niederer said. “Most of us are new to the court this year.”
In fact, only Niederer, fellow senior Cayden Giles and sophomore BeauDee Bluemel saw time at the varsity level last season.
“We are very inexperienced, don’t have much time on the floor, but I think we can do pretty good,” said BeauDee Bluemel, an All-State football player this season. “We won’t give up and we’ll give a good challenge.”
Despite seeing limited playing time last season, the trio believed watching and playing against the 2016-17 Eagles was beneficial for them.
“Every day in practice, they made us better,” Niederer said.
Lyman hopes to be peaking when things matter most.
“My expectations are to just get better, week-by-week,” Giles said. “I think going into regionals, and hopefully state, we’ll be at our best.”