Three Bulldogs named to 3A All-State team

A 26-2 record and a state championship has resulted in three players named to the Wyoming Class 3A All-State team, with another named all-conference and one more receiving honorable mention status.

All five were starters on the Lovell championship team this season.

Seniors Owen Walker and Matthew Newman and junior Kaeson Anderson were named all-state and were joined on the 3A West All-Conference team by senior Owen Edwards. Senior Kyle Wilson received honorable mention notice.

Lovell head coach Shane Durtsche, who was also named 3A Coach of the Year, said Walker, Newman and Anderson were unanimous all-state picks. Walker was named Class 3A player of the year and defensive player of the year.

Newman and Walker were named to the 3A West all-defensive team, and Durtsche noted that Walker was nominated as the all-class Gatorade Player of the Year.

Owen Walker

Going into the state tournament, according to WyoPreps, Walker was sixth in scoring in Class 3A at 16.7 points per game, fourth in the 3A West, and he led the state in rebounding at 12.9 boards per contest. He easily led the state in blocked shots at 3.8 swats per game. He was third in shooting percentage, hitting 57 percent of his shots from the field – 63 percent from two-point range and 30 percent from beyond the arc. He also tallied 2.0 steals per contest, ninth in the West.

“I don’t even know where to start,” Durtsche said. “I mean, that kid has been the cornerstone of our program for really three solid years, and he was a big part of it as a freshman. Any time you have a 6-8 athlete that can shoot it, that can move like he does, run the floor, well, let’s just say we had something nobody else had. I find it difficult even to find the words to really express or describe how much he has just meant to the basketball team and, obviously, to me as a coach. But he’s not only an unbelievable athlete and basketball player, but just the kid that he is, with his character. I just was blessed.

“He treats everybody with respect, from the freshman on up. At the very first freshman game of the year, there he is sitting on the end of the bench just encouraging them, just being there to support them. That’s the kind of leader that he is.

“He can rebound, block shots, shoot, run the floor. He can guard the perimeter. Where he really made a big improvement over the last couple years is his ability to guard out on the perimeter. He’s just so athletic. Let’s just say I’m gonna miss him next year.”

Matthew Newman

Newman led the state in assists, dishing for 6.2 assists per contest, and he swiped three steals per game to lead the state. He shot free throws at a 77 percent clip, which tied for eighth in the state. He finished third on the team in scoring at 11.6 points per contest and pulled down 4.2 rebounds per game.

“I’ve really felt for three years, even though he was just a sophomore when he started, that our team has gone as Matthew has gone,” Durtsche said. “He probably grew more in the three years than anyone and just matured. He became a leader on the floor. I never worried about Matthew being there for us. I knew he was going to show up. And just another great kid who is just an unbelievable athlete, with his quickness, his jumping ability. I’ve never had a kid like that, and then he could play 32 minutes.

“I asked him to guard and take kids away, and he would guard and take them away and not get a rest sometimes or very minimal. That’s a luxury, and when he’d get a steal or get in that open court, he was unbelievable. He came a long way over the last couple years as an outside shooter, as well, and that was showed when he hit that huge three in the state championship game. My confidence in him was unwavering, and that wasn’t the case even through his junior year, to be honest. He had, like, a sixth sense for when the team needed him to make a play. It was a big steal or a big shot. He just wasn’t going to let us lose. He’s an ultimate competitor.”

Kaeson Anderson

Anderson placed second in 3A in assists behind Newman at 5.0 per game, and he finished sixth in the state in steals at 2.8 swipes per contest. The sharpshooter shot 38 percent from three-point range, eighth in the state. Anderson averaged 14.8 points per game, sixth in 3A. He gathered 4.4 rebounds per game. Durtsche called him a glue player for the team.

“He was Mr. Consistent, Mr. Steady. He was my security blanket,” Durtsche said. “I knew Kaeson Anderson was going to show up. He just has that about him. I always know that Kaeson is going to be there and ready to play. And as a coach, to know that you’ve got that high caliber player that is always going to be there, that’s just a luxury, to say the least.

“Kaeson does it all. I would put him a lot of times on the other team’s best perimeter player, a guy we needed to take away. I switched that between him and Matthew. It kind of depended on their size, how tall that guard was, but Kaeson really stepped up this year and took on a defensive role.

“He was unbelievable in the state championship (as a shooter). We’re not in that game in the first half if he doesn’t show up in that first quarter, and he’s hitting those from five, six feet behind the NBA line. He’s got an unbelievable shooting range. I mean, he makes it look easy. 

The other thing about Kaeson is that he really worked on getting to the rim, because he’s such a good shooter, and then finishing off two feet. Basically, he improved his strength, and that really went a long way this year, because he’s another one that played huge minutes for me. I’m glad I get that kid back.”

Owen Edwards

Edwards averaged 9.7 shots per game through Regionals, fourth on the team, shooting 55 percent from two-point range. He tallied 3.0 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.8 steals per contest.

“Eddie came a heck of a long way this year,” Durtsche said. “He filled that void, one of those pieces like (graduates) Davin (Crosby) and Jace (Nicholls). You wonder what you’re going to get, and I knew right away. Owen stepped in, became that guy that could score and get to the rim. The second half of the year was much better. He was just another steady guy. When I knew teams were trying to take one of our three all-state guys away, I’ve got a guy that can score 20. And he did that. He was huge in that semifinal game, hitting five or six threes.

“He hit some huge shots in the state championship like that big three. He also came a long way defensively. He just provided another upperclassman presence, someone that had played a lot of basketball and had some big moments for us this year. He struggled through a knee injury all year, and he was limping to the finish line. It was really bugging him at Regionals and State. It got really bad. He was hurting down the stretch, so he really toughed it out. …

We had five kids out there at any time who could score. And most teams don’t put that out there.”

Kyle Wilson

Wilson averaged 5.5 points per game but finished third in the state in blocked shots at 1.6 per game and sixth in rebounding, collecting 7.7 caroms per game.

“Kyle was huge for us this year,” Durtsche said. “Kyle just changed so much, and he got his confidence. He moved so much better. This year we asked him to always guard the other team’s big guy, and he took that off of Owen. He helped Owen more than most people realize, because Kyle’s now taking that beating and leaning on those bigs, and that freed Owen up to do what he did and play more minutes. Kyle came a long way. He became a force inside that teams had to account for and recognize. He also developed a little 15-footer. He was deadly with those elbow jumpers. He also did a nice job of catching and kicking it out to shooters on the weak side.

“Plus, Kyle is a leader. He would talk and get the guys together and get them excited. You could see him show some emotion out there, and he was a big part of what we did.”