During Dennis Becker’s first three seasons as head boys basketball coach of Lebo, the Wolves have enjoyed nearly unprecedented success.
 
Lebo not only reached the Class 1A Division II state tournament all three seasons, but finished as state runner-up twice, falling to Greeley County in the 2023 championship game and to Cunningham in the 2024 title game.
 
But for all that postseason success, one thing missing from Lebo’s resume was a Lyon County League Tournament title. In each of their state runner-up seasons, the Wolves finished second at the league tournament to Olpe.
 
Graduating four seniors off last year’s team that took third at the league tournament, this year’s squad hardly seemed like a prime candidate to bring home the Wolves’ first league tourney title since 2021. Particularly after the Wolves went just 3-4 during the league’s regular season play and finished fifth in the league standings.
 
But as improbable as it might have seemed that the Wolves would come away with this year’s title, that’s exactly what they did. Lebo knocked off the tournament’s No. 4, 1 and 3 seeds, capping its remarkable run with a 66-57 win over Hartford in last Saturday’s championship game at White Auditorium in Emporia.
 
“I knew at the beginning of the year that this group had a chance to be special,” Becker said. “I didn’t know we’d be there this early in the process. But this group has really stepped up and worked hard in practice every day and showed that desire to want to get better. And we saw that these three games this week and my hat’s off to them. They wanted this and they showed off what they could do.”
 
Going into the season, Lebo was going to have a vastly different identity. Among the four starters the Wolves lost to graduation was two-time first-team All-Class 1A Division II selection Zach Oswald, who was a double-double machine for the Wolves throughout his career and their clear go-to guy.
 
His graduation left a huge hole, literally, for the Wolves to fill and a new identity to create for the team.
 
“You knew you had some pieces,” Becker said. “You saw some glimpses of Gerek (Reber) last year and you could see some of the other guys here and there. Andyou knew you just had to put it together.”
 

Reber cracked the starting lineup last year as a freshman and averaged just 4.8 points per game. The only other returner that saw significant time a year ago was classmate Brock Hadley, who came off the bench for 4.2 points per game.
 
Just sophomores this year, they are the veteran presence on a Lebo team that is extremely young. The Wolves have just one senior on the roster but he’s not a part of the regular rotation. Instead, the Wolves start four sophomores and a freshman.
 
So naturally there were going to be some growing pains this year as that youth acclimated itself to varsity action in a league that’s always as tough as nearly any small-school league in the state.
 
After beating Erie and West Franklin to start the season, the Wolves dropped six of their next seven games. Four of those losses were by seven points or less, including a three-point loss to Hartford.
 
Winning two straight games ahead of the league tourney, Lebo built some momentum that carried over and through the tournament week. After avenging a seven-point loss to Madison with a dominating 63-40 quarterfinal tournament win over the Bulldogs, Lebo pulled off its biggest win of the season.
 
The Wolves had lost by 20 points earlier in the season to Olpe, which had won the last three league tournament titles. But a big first half by Reber, who hit four second-quarter 3-pointers, and a big second half from freshman Eli Konrade, who had 15 of his 18 points after halftime, the Wolves pulled out a 66-61 upset of the Eagles.
 
“That was definitely a huge confidence game” Becker said. “Olpe’s had some injuries this year, but to beat them and get that confidence is huge. It’s just one win stacking on to the next win and it just keeps growing.”
 

 
Reber, who finished with 21 points against Olpe, carried things over to the title game as well, scoring 22 points. Konrade added 13 points and Lebo’s balanced attack played out with four other Wolves all scoring at least six. The Wolves built a 36-20 lead in the first half and then fought off Hartford’s late charge that saw the Jaguars score 25 points in the final period with Landen Schultz and Coy Wilkinson combining for 23 of those.
 
“If you would have seen some of those first games, just not playing as a team or having it figured out yet playing as one cohesive unit, it’s impressive to see the strides they’ve made,” Becker said. “Putting them all together and putting egos aside, they’re playing some great basketball. Somebody takes away Gerek or Jayden (Blount), then Eli steps up or Brock steps up. There’s a lot of different pieces that have stepped up and our identity can morph depending on how other teams play us.”
 
Reber averaged 18.7 points per game at the tourney while Konrade averaged 12 points a game and fellow freshman Jett Edwards added 8 points a contest.
 

 
Hartford had its best tournament finish since taking second in 2016. Wilkinson had a huge tournament, scoring a career-high 42 points in a semifinal win over Burlingame and then getting 21 in the championship game. The junior guard went over 1,000 career points at the tourney, averaging 26 points per game at the tourney.
 

 
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER, LITTLE RIVER TAKES DELAYED ST. JOHN MID-WINTER CLASSIC TITLE
 
All season, Little River has hung its hat on its defense with the Redskins holding opponents to just 34 points per game.
 
That defense was a huge key for the Redskins at the weather-delayed St. John Mid-Winter Classic. Holding its three tourney foes to just 42 points per game, Little River brought home the tournament championship, beating fellow ranked Class 1A Division I Central Plains 55-47 in the title game.
 
Little River had opened the tourney with a 55-44 win over Cimarron and then beat Larned 78-35 in the semifinals before weather pushed the tournament championship game back a week to this past Saturday.
 
“I felt this tournament was very beneficial for our team,” Little River coach Erik Base said. “Cimarron is a physical team to start the tournament off. Larned has a post player that is a huge problem for most teams. I was very proud of our team defense and not allowing him to get any touches, holding to five points all on free throws.
 
“The championship game was a matchup of two top-10 teams and (Braeden) Crites and (Camden) Stiles are a good combo for Central Plains. We did a great job on Stiles, holding him to three points.”
 
Jaxson Konen brought home tournament MVP honors, averaging 14.7 points per game at the tourney, including 20 points and 4 assists in the semifinal win. But Little River’s balance was on display as four other Redskins hit double-figure scoring in the tournament.
 
Lincoln Raleigh had a big title game with 16 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists and Logan Schubert led them in scoring in the Cimarron win with 16 points. Jaren Garrison hit double figures in the quarterfinals and semifinals.
 
“We do such a great job of sharing the ball and on any night we could have a different leading scorer out of our top 10 rotational guys,” Base said. “I am proud of the way that we do share the ball and get out and run, but even more proud of the way we play team defense and fly around having fun. This has been a fun group to work with day in and day out.”
 

 
OTHER BOYS BASKETBALL STANDOUTS

• Rock Creek set a school record with 19 3-pointers made in a 100-37 win over Wamego on Friday. That came after a tough 66-60 win over Silver Lake on Tuesday. Gavin Rosa averaged 18 points in the two games while Hudson Edelman averaged 13 and Logan Klingenberg averaged 12.
• Osawatomie’s Jasper Sallee scored his 1,000th career points in a 62-37 win over Prairie View on Friday, moving into fourth on the Trojans’ career scoring list. Sallee is averaging 22.3 points, 8.1 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game this season.
• Centralia’s Quentin Alderfer broke the school record for 3-pointers made in a game with 10 against Onaga.
• Axtell’s Joe Lybarger averaged 11 points, 6.5 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 8.5 steals in two wins for the Eagles last week. He came close to a quadruple double against Lourdes Central Catholic (Neb.) with 10 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists and 8 steals and then had 9 steals against Canton-Galva.
• Olpe’s Brecken McGuire went over the 1,000 point mark in mid-January and then scored 70 points in three Lyon County League Tournament games as the Eagles finished third.
• Minneapolis’ Owen Just went over 1,000 career points last week.
• Onaga’s Casen Hutfles had a big week with 14 points and 5 rebounds against Valley Heights, 14 points, 20 rebounds and 5 blocks against Wabaunsee and 19 points, 13 rebounds and 3 blocks against Clifton-Clyde.