The Class 1A boys basketball playoffs will begin Friday with preliminary round games, including AGWSR hosting South Hamilton in District 4 on 99 The Wave.
Coming off a 3-18 regular season, the Cougars will enter the playoffs with the momentum of Monday’s 51-49 win over Colo-Nesco. Head Coach Ryley Schipper says the strength of schedule has the team ready to compete with anyone.
“I think our schedule has prepared us to play really anybody,” Schipper says. “If you look at the power rankings, the strength of schedule rankings, on Bound we’re second in Class 1A and on the BCMoore rankings we’re sitting at fourth. We play a tough schedule to get us prepared. Obviously you want to get more wins, but the ones we do get, just based off of who we’ve played, have prepared us to be able to be in those games. I think even some of the tougher teams in our conference we’ve played, we played with them for a period of time and then really ran out of gas, but it shows that we’re capable.”
The Cougars have been led by Bo Starr’s 12.9 points and seven rebounds per game.
South Hamilton is winless at 0-21, but Schipper says the Hawks have among the toughest schedules in Class 1A.
“They haven’t won a game, but you look at South Hamilton’s strength of schedule, they’ve only played one 1A game all year. They play in a 2A/3A conference. I said our strength of schedule is four. I think they’re sitting at two and one on whichever site you look at. So they’ve got probably the hardest schedule in Class 1A just based off the teams they play and having not played very many 1A teams. So they’re a team that I think can give you matchup problems. They’ve got a guard that can get streaky. They’ve got the Swenson kid that if you let him stand and shoot, he’s going to knock down a bunch of threes on you, and they’ve got a freshman post player that’s done a really, really nice job and is only getting better as the year goes on.”
Grant Larson scores 12.3 points per game for a team that has made just 25 percent of its shot attempts this year.
Coverage will start at 6:40 p.m., followed by the tipoff at 7:00.
Ryley Schipper interview:
