Effort not lacking, despite WP boys’ 3-20 season finish

It’s never easy to replace five senior leaders, but that was the task of the Wauneta-Palisade boys’ basketball team in the 2020-2021 season.
The Broncos had a lot of new faces on the floor this season for Head Coach Rod Gaston and only one senior to lead the way, Braxton McKinney.
“Braxton was a great leader for the team this year.  He was asked to do a lot this year and he did everything he could to make this the best team possible,” Gaston said.
McKinney had team highs with 16.4 points per game, 10th in Class D2, and 6.3 rebounds per game, plus 58 steals and 10 blocks. He was second on the team in assists.
Gaston pointed out that McKinney had five games over 20 points, a 32 point game and, at one point, had a streak of 13 straight makes at the free throw line.
    “Many teams put a chaser on him making him hone his offensive skills even more,”  Gaston added.  
    Junior Garrett Hanna led WP in assists and was second on the team with a 7.5 points per game average, as well as being second on the team in total rebounds, 86, and steals, 38.
    With two seasons of valuable minutes under his belt, Gaston expects Hanna to be a leader for his team next year.
Other starters for WP this season included juniors Ruel Malcolm, Grant Walker, Aidan Kennicutt and Allen Ramirez and sophomore Kyle Jutten.
    Gaston said Walker, Ramirez and Jutten are very athletic players and did a lot for the team on defense that doesn’t always show up in the stats.  
    He went on to say that Malcolm, in his first year out for basketball, showed a lot of talent WP’s coaches look forward to developing over the next year.  
    Sophomore Michael Duvel also played in 20 of 23 games and classmate Jacksen Littrel shook off a preseason injury to play in 15 games.

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