The Community R-6 boys have been building a program this season and came together to build something big on Monday night.

The Trojans defeated Bunceton 64-23 at home to set a new season-high in scoring as well as a season-best margin of victory. There were no seniors to honor on Senior Night, but Community’s young roster kept firm control of the game from the second quarter on.

KaTavyn Wheeler is a sophomore playing his second varsity season, and he managed to post a career-high 27 points along with nine rebounds. Wheeler said he is happy that he was able to seize the scoring opportunities that his teammates set up, and it demonstrates the noticeable change with this team.

Community R-6 vs Bunceton Photo Gallery

“We’re definitely getting better team building,” Wheeler said. “We’re scoring the ball better and attacking better than previous years. As a team, we’ve all become better leaders.”

Head coach Chris Ellersieck said Community (5-14) had good ball movement and attacked gaps well on offense, which was sharp because of a key reason.

“When we got going is when we started to get the ball inside and get a little inside-outside work,” Ellersieck said. “It made things easier when we were trying to go downhill, get into the paint and finish off two feet.”

The team’s big man Rett Curtis finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds, Brett Beamer had seven points to go along with six steals and five assists, and Jude Curtis had seven points, five rebounds and three steals.

Ellersieck said Beamer was “huge” for the Trojans as they did well forcing turnovers against Bunceton (0-15). Community had an 11-6 lead in the first quarter but didn’t look back after an 11-0 run fueled by defense, according to Ellersieck.

“When we’re not going very well with running the offense, if we’re playing good defense and having our hands in passing lanes, we can get into transition and get a few easy buckets,” Ellersieck said. “We were able to do that at times tonight.”

Community lost its fifth straight game when it was eliminated from the Sturgeon Tournament last week after losing to double-digit winning teams from Westran and Paris. There have been stretches when the Trojans couldn’t find victory, but Wheeler said Monday’s Trojans looked different than those times.

“We moved the ball way better, we got to the basket better and we looked for the cuts better,” Wheeler said. 

Ellersieck said Wheeler had this type of attitude after his career night, and he loved to see his player like that and hopes to see plenty of that in the future.

“Any night a kid can score like that feels good,” Ellersieck said. “I was happy with the way he responded to it. He wasn’t braggadocious or overly excited about it. He acted like it was a normal thing for him, which is the way I like kids to respond.”

With two more wins than last year’s Trojans, Ellersieck said this year’s team to start with effort and further build off of that.

“I just want us to play hard and play together,” Ellersieck said. “Everything else will take care of itself.”