By Rich Winter

605 Sports

HARTFORD — Following an 85-34 win over Canton on Feb. 18 the West Central boys were greeted the next day with an intense film session offered up by coach Jacob Sittig. 

In spite of the lopsided win over the C-Hawks, coach Sittig found 18 clips of moments where the Trojans could have done better. The intense scrutiny was welcomed by a Trojans squad that is 16-3 and ranked No. 4 in the latest South Dakota Prep Media Basketball Poll. 

“We watched a lot of film last year and going into this season we all loved what coach Sittig was doing with film study last year,” Kolte Garry, West Central junior said. “Coach Sittig takes a lot of time out of the day for the film study and feels like that is a big reason why we get a little better every day.”

Getting better every day is something the West Central boys committed to at the beginning of the summer. Coming off a 12-10 season, and after being eliminated by Sioux Falls Christian in the region playoffs for a second consecutive year, the West Central boys went to work. 

“We were hungry to be better than last year,” Luke Knight, West Central senior said. “Everyone was in the gym all summer and doing what they needed to do to get better.” 

While Sittig worried his guys might get sick of the film sessions the team has rallied around the mantra of getting better every day. 

“We watch all this film and pay attention to the little things,” Garry said. “Against Hamlin I got beat off the dribble and that led to a made 3-pointer and I told the team how I could have done better. Since the Hamlin game (53-48 2OT loss) we are shooting about 80 percent from the free throw line. That may not seem like much but it's all about doing one thing better and those things add up.”

The Trojans defeated Chamberlain, ?? to ?? on Friday to improve to 16-3 with only a home game against Elk Point-Jefferson remaining on Monday, Feb. 24. 

Coach Sittig said a number of factors have led to a season that so far has been slightly better than expected. 

“We thought we had an opportunity to be good and maybe win about 14 games,” Sittig said. “If all the pieces came together and fell right we felt like maybe we could get to that 17 win plateau.” 

While Sittig thought the Trojans had an opportunity to be an outstanding offensive team it has been the defense that has carried the Trojans into late February. 

“Our defense has been extremely good,” Sittig said. “When we played Lennox they were averaging 71 and we held them to 42. In the loss to Hamlin they had 38 points at the end of regulation so we’ve been good on the defensive side of the ball.” 

With a roster that features seven sophomores and a freshman the Trojans may be at the very beginning of their rise in rank in Class A basketball. Sophomore Connor Mebius has emerged as the teams leading scorer with an all around game that is just beginning to blossom. 

“Connor is a really good shooter and is shooting about 39 percent from three,” Sittig said. “He’s been attacking the basket and finishing around the time while also leading us in assists.” 

Junior Will Kuhl played significant minutes as a sophomore and the 6-feet-9 player has continued to improve this season while becoming the defensive anchor for the Trojans. 

“Will is our second leading scorer and he’s become a lot better at posting up and becoming a really good rim protector,” Sittig said. “He was a big reason we beat Lennox (47-42) because we filtered things to him and he had seven blocked shots.” 

Mebius and Kuhl do a lot of the scoring but Sittig points to the balance of his squad as a strength of the team. Sittig noted that Carter Tetzlaff was the leading scorer in the recent game against Canton while Garry and Knight have each led the team in scoring several times. 

“Hayden Heier led us in scoring once and is the big reason we beat Vermillion,” Sittig said. “When a bunch of different guys can score that takes a lot of pressure off of Connor and WIll because they know they don’t always have to score.” 

Garry and Knight have both been through the wars that are games in the Dak-12 Conference and Knight says those games have the Trojans ready for a deep post season run. 

“Every game in our conference is going to be a battle,” Knight said. “To be the best you have to beat the best and every game in our league is a tough game.” 

Three years ago West Central entered the Region 3A semifinals with a 17-4 record and the top seed in the region. The Trojans lost to Madison that day, extending the drought of not making the Class A state tournament since 2001 when Josh Mueller led the team to a state championship. 

Sittig said his team has shown incredible maturity this season and never get too far in front of the next moment. 

“We talk about seed points and then what we need to do to position ourselves for where we want to be,” he said. “Having film sessions three or four times a week it is hard to get too far ahead because we are always focused on being in the moment.” 

Fans in Hartford are ready for a trip to the Class A tournament and Knight talked about the student section, the Coliseum Crazies, that have been giving the team a lift at every game. 

“After our first couple of games the school and the student section were just going off every night so we nicknamed them the coliseum crazies,” he said. “The fan support this year has been amazing and our gym is always packed. There is so much energy on the court and that just helps us elevate our level of play.”