Lesterville Boys Hoops Looking to Reload in 2020-21

(Lesterville) The Lesterville Bearcats boys basketball team will look to follow up their 21-8 district runner-up season from last year with another strong campaign in 2020-21.

Head coach Anthony Caruso says his guys are certainly excited about the opportunity to play during what has been such a trying time.

The Lesterville boys have been on one of their best runs in program history with three consecutive seasons above .500 and back-to-back 20-win seasons.

However, a talented class that helped pave the way for all that success has now departed.

The Bearcats graduated four starters – Holden Laughman, Vince Mathes, James Gibson, and Brendan Myers.

Those four players combined for 55.5 points per game last year on a team that averaged 69.3 points per game.

To put it simply, there will be a lot of new faces called upon to contribute to the Bearcats boys hoops team this season.

Caruso says he had the graduating seniors step out once last season concluded which left the returning players to dissect the group.

Nolan Mathes is the lone returning starter for Lesterville, and he has averaged 28 points per game across the team’s first four contests.

Caruso says while the inexperience may have the Bearcats off to a slow start, he expects things to pick up midway through the season.

Lesterville has started the season at (1-3) after a season-opening loss to Meadow Heights and finishing in 4th place in the AV Thanksgiving Tournament with a win over Fredericktown and losses to Bunker and Ellington.

Full Interview with Anthony Caruso: