Picture courtesy of Tanner Colvin

For the first 10 games of Salina Central’s basketball season, Gannon Cole sat on the bench, unable to help the Mustangs fight through some early growing pains.

“It was very hard. I’m a competitive person and I want to help my team as much as I can,” said Cole, a 5-foot-10 senior guard, said of watching the Mustangs get off to a 1-4 start while he recovered from a broken collarbone. “But I just had to stay strong mentally so I could get back to helping the team.”

Senior guard Gannon Cole

By the time Cole returned to the lineup for a Jan. 13 Ark Valley Chisholm Trail League Division II game against Arkansas City, Central had started to find its footing, battling back to a 5-5 record. The Mustangs are now 9-8 following a big 46-43 victory at home Friday against Andover, with two road games on tap this week at Andover Central on Tuesday and Ark City on Friday.

“I know there were some games early in the season that we’d like to have back again,” said Cole, who suffered his injury on Nov. 28 in Central’s Class 5A football state championship victory over Basehor-Linwood. “Not being able to do my role was kind of challenging for me, but we’ve grown a lot, and we’ve gotten a lot better and we’re still getting better.”

The early season was a challenge not just for Cole, but for an entire Central team that opened the season on Dec. 4 in a tough Hays preseason tournament and had less than a week to prepare with its full roster following the football championship.

“We were 1-4, and a tough schedule, football guys coming back, and it was hard,” said Central coach Chris Fear, now in his second season with the boys after a successful run leading the Mustang girls team. “We just kind of had some things against us.”

Head coach Chris Fear

“But since then, I think we’ve played some pretty good basketball, and we’re practicing well. I feel good about our team going into the rest of February.”

The high point of the season so far, no doubt, was Friday’s victory over Andover, a team that beat the Mustangs, 69-53, in Andover on Jan. 6. Not only did it end an 18-game losing streak to the Trojans dating back to 2019, but it put them within a game of the AVCTL II lead.

“They had beaten us 18 in a row, and we hadn’t beaten them in seven years, so it was a great win for us,” Fear said. “We’ve done that a couple of times. Andover Central had a big winning streak against us, so this team is kind of establishing an identity for themselves, and I’m really happy for that.”

Even in a 71-54 road loss to Class 6A power Maize last Tuesday, Fear saw signs of growth from his team.

“We played well for a lot of the Maize game, we really did,” Fear said. “It got away from us in a couple of stretches, but I thought we played maybe our best basketball last week, certainly our toughest basketball, and I was really proud of them.”

Central’s team is built on the strength of its six-member senior class and a group of talented sophomores. The lone returning fulltime starter is 6-6 senior Noah Peck, while Cole made a few starts.

Arguably the most improved player is 6-6 senior post Greyson Jones, the team’s second-leading scorer at 15.6 points per game and top rebounder with a 5.6 average.

“He’s a first team, all-league guy, I don’t think there’s any doubt about it,” Fear said of Jones, who averaged 4.3 points and 2.7 points as a backup last year. “He really worked his tail off in the offseason, and he’s been fantastic.”

But the breakout star has been sophomore guard Kaeden Nienke, who after appearing in just 15 games as a freshman now leads the team in scoring at 17.1 points to go with 4.1 rebounds and 1.9 steals. Forward Grant Ostmeyer, the other sophomore starter, contributes 11.3 points, 4.2 rebounds and a team-best 2.5 steals.

“I’m excited to watch them grow beyond this year,” Cole said of the sophomore class, which also includes reserve forward Eli Kreighbaum. “Having this experience early will help them a lot, and I think they’re great players.”

Nienke, a powerful guard who excels at getting to the rim, is shooting better than 56% from the field, second only to Jones’ 62%.

Sophomore guard Kaeden Nienke

“I put a lot of work in during the offseason, during the summer, so I knew I was going to have a good season,” Nienke said. “But I didn’t know it was going to go as well as it has been.”

Fear credit his seniors, who also include guard Tommy Payne and forwards Angel McMurray and Jordan Edwards, for helping the sophomores shine.

“The sophomores have developed, and our seniors have been great in that they have allowed that to happen,” Fear said. “It’s a pretty close team right now.”

Nienke concurred.

“I am really happy,” he said. “This team is amazing, just the brotherhood that we have, the sense of like this family that we have, and we’re able to just be with each other and play through anything together.”

“So, all the highs and lows, it’s been good.”

As was the case against Andover, when the Mustangs are at their best, it begins with defense.

“We’ve got some length and we’ve got size, but definitely, defense is the key for us,” Fear said. “We’re a team that needs to be able to use that as one of our strengths. If we don’t defend very well, it’s probably going to be a long night for us.”

Nienke agreed that improved team defense has been critical for the Mustangs.

“Our biggest strides, I feel, have been our trust in our defense, especially with help side, just trusting that our teammates are going to be there,” Nienke said. “I think defense is going to be one of our major attributes to going farther in this upcoming backside of the season.”

While Central’s 9-8 record looks modest on the surface, it has marked a significant step forward for a program that has not had a winning record since going 17-6 in 2018-19 and has not reached double-digit victories since a 10-11 in 2021-22.

“We’ve got nine wins right now, and that’s more than we had last year (8-13),” Fear said. “We still have six games to play, and I’m definitely pleased with where we are, and we would certainly love to win a few more, but I think we’ve learned a lot of good lessons along the way.”

The seniors especially would like to finish their careers on a high note.

“It’s a thing we talked about at the beginning of the season,” Cole said. “We want to win in the postseason.”

“It’s been a while since that’s been done here, and we want to be the group to start doing that and kind of set the standard and hopefully grow from here.”