Cal Lanouette
Sports Editor
“I think this team is ready to really compete,” said junior team manager Herbie Herber. “This could be the year we go to State again.” Men’s basketball comes into the season with hopes of another 20-win campaign.
Last year’s team finished 20-7 overall (6-1 in conference play), but failed to get past Kirkwood in its first game of the tournament. It was a young team then though, sporting seven sophomores and two freshmen and only one junior and two seniors on its roster.
“We gained some important experience last year, so hopefully that will pay off for us throughout the season,” said assistant coach Scott Stallcup. With all the experience the team gained last year, Stallcup hopes to see improvement from the players
“I’m interested to see how tough this team is mentally and physically. We have had some very tough teams in the past, so this team will be challenged to uphold that tradition,” said Stallcup. “I love coaching basketball, period. If I can pass along my will to win and desire to get the most out of our players, then I’ve done my job.”
Six foot, six inches. That’s the height of Webster’s tallest player, junior Alex Floresca. Floresca led the team in various categories on both defense and offense.
On offense, Floresca led in points scored (315 pts.), average points per game (11.7 pts/game), most field goals made (131 FGM) and field goal percentage (56.96 FGM). On defense, he led in blocks (21), rebounds (195), average rebounds a game (7.2) and the most on both offense and defense (Offensive-73, Defensive-122). Floresca knows how to get it done and efficiently too.
Another player to watch this year is junior, Sam Craig. Craig led the team in 3-point field goals (58), was second in points (248 pts.) and was second at the line (75 FT percentage).
Other players to watch are juniors Nick Delgado, Cameron Hilton and Stephen Harris, and senior Jamal Hinton, all of whom played 26 games or more last season.
“We have a great tradition, so obviously we expect to win a lot of games. We always want to win our own tournament, we want to win the Meramec Tournament, we want to win our conference, and we want to win Districts. The only way we can do this is to get better every day,” said Stallcup. “It’s this team’s turn to make their mark as to how they want to be remembered.”
