Spartans see a silver lining in tournament loss to Tigers

Exira-EHK will return its top two scorers and seven of its nine regulars 

By Drew Herron - AJ Sports Editor / Feb. 24, 2014

ELK HORN – This most recent season has barely had time to be packed away, but the Spartans are already looking ahead to 2014-15.

This year proved to be a stage of building for the future with so many young but competent players. Most in the conference expect Exira-EHK to win more games and put a more polished product on the court next winter, not least of whom is Spartans’ head coach Doug Newton.

“We’ve got plenty to build on, and a good bunch of kids coming back,” he says. “Now we just have to get into the gym over the summer and improve in some areas.”

Exira-EHK will lose two seniors (Tate Simpson and Zack Petersen), but at least seven regulars are eligible to return, including the team’s top two leading scorers and seven of its top eight.

The most productive scorer to return is junior Drew Peppers, who led the team at 8.3 PPG, and he was also the team’s leading rebounder at 7 boards per game.

Sophomore, Brady Hansen is just behind Peppers at 8.1 PPG, and proven juniors Jared Hansen and Jake Paulsen are combining for around a dozen total points per night.

Mix in junior Lucas Schwery, as well as freshmen Drew Buckholdt and Noah Pettepier, all regulars, and the Spartans can be expected to carry a lot of depth moving forward.

Exira-EHK had its struggles to translate improvements into the forms of win, and did not win back-to-back games this winter. But at the same time, the Spartans never had a losing streak of more than five games.

Of course, no victory was bigger for the Spartans than the one in the playoffs against a geographic rival in Audubon.

Sometimes the road to success requires many steps. Perhaps for the Spartans, the tournament victory this winter can spawn multiple playoff wins next February.

“That playoff win was certainly a good thing,” coach Newton says of the first-round victory over Audubon. “To succeed in a tournament atmosphere is important, and we had a lot of fun doing it. The wins didn’t come in large amounts this year, but we tried to enjoy the ones we had.”

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