3 hours Ago
The Wilmington High boys basketball team is starting to see success on the hardwood. At the center of that success is junior guard, Freddie Zehetner. Zehetner led Wilmington with a game-high 28 points in a 59-56 overtime victory against Commodore Perry on Tuesday.
It was nice. A bunch of my teammates got the me the ball throwing me passes down court to let me do my thing. It gave me an open space.
On Wednesday, Zehetner posted another game-high 24 points to capture a 53-36 nonregion victory over Maplewood. That was a hustle game. We were all just running up and down the court, throwing the deep passes and getting the layups.
For his efforts, Zehetner was named Lawrence County Athlete of the Week as voted on by the New Castle News sports staff. “Freddie has been everywhere. He’s been outstanding,” Wilmington coach Nick Marmo said.
“A lot of our points are coming in transition but we’re doing everything we can to get the ball in his hands because he’s just so athletic and he’s attacking the hoop. He’s been really really good for us. “When we were playing Commodore, we needed a couple of baskets there late and we went right to him.
We had a couple of plays for him and the place went crazy when he put it in and we took the lead. It’s nice seeing the team having success, Freddie have success and the people around here are very excited about Wilmington basketball.” The Greyhounds started the season off by breaking a 35-game losing streak.
Wilmington is now 3-0 after defeating Maplewood. “It was rough last year but our coach Marmo has been having us work hard in practice and pushing us to do better each day,” Zehetner said. A son of Shannon and Alfred Zehetner, the junior had a slow start to last season due to a hand injury.
“It was rough. I just had to keep working on my left hand,” he said. “I got my left hand better.
I had to keep working on my shot last year and I came back stronger.” Marmo talked about Zehetner dealing with a broken hand from football and coming in this season fresh. “It was sort of frustrating for him and everybody because we kind of see what he can do and we’re excited about things he’s doing and think he’s going to get better and better.
It started off slow because he couldn’t do a whole lot to start. Once he came back, he was having an impact defensively,” Marmo said. “Once he got his strength and mobility back, he was starting to put some points on the board for us.
This year, coming in healthy, obviously has been huge for us and it shows. He’s been everywhere for us.” Story continues below video Seven players on Wilmington’s roster, including Zehetner, saw success on the gridiron this season and even won the District 10, Class 1A championship.
Zehetner said the success on the football field motivated the basketball team to start winning. “We’ve probably had in each game two or three passes where it’s like a touchdown from Wesley Vass-Gal to Zehetner for two points. I just think of the football season because those guys had a good year in football and it’s carrying over,” Marmo said.
“I’m hoping some of those other football guy see and say ‘Hey, these guys are having success and maybe we can go out there and do that.’ I’m not real concerned with people who aren’t here. I’m just enjoying the guys that are.
Having the football guys around is definitely good for us.” Zehetner said the team is focusing on defense and shooting the ball. “We’re getting shots up and playing good, solid defense,” he said.
Marmo said Zehetner is finishing at the rim really well this year. “When he gets the ball in the post or he beats a guy off of the dribble or in transition, he’s been finishing. That’s been probably the best part for him,” Marmo said.
“He’s getting it on the wing, on the block, in transition. He’s confident, he’s attacking the hoop and he’s making it count.” The Wilmington roster has a decent size of freshmen players mixed in with the upperclassmen.
“They’re doing good on the scout team. They get us ready for each game and going hard and giving us a good look,” Zehetner said of the younger players, adding, “We have a decent amount of upperclassmen. They feed me the ball.
They’re looking for me. We just have good chemistry..
.We have some people coming off of the bench which is nice. We have good communication.
On defense, we know where to be and where to help defense.” Marmo talked about his key offensive players leadership abilities. “He’s more of a lead by example (player) but when something needs to be said he’ll give somebody a look or like ‘Hey guys, we’re not doing that.
’ It’s nice to have him sort of taking charge a little bit,” Marmo said. “The guys look to him. He gets along with everyone really well.
It’s nice we’re going to have him for another year.” Region action and a shot at the post season looms in front of the Greyhounds. “They’re going to be big games for us.
Our first one is against West Middlesex,” Zehetner said. “We need to get on the board in the region and do our thing.” Zehetner is currently undecided on if he wants to compete in basketball or football at the collegiate level.
“He’s just going to keep growing. He has some guys around him that are obviously helping him,” Marmo said. “Fortunately for him, we have a lot of guys this year that played a lot of basketball.
We’ve got four or five guys that were in our top six, seven guys last year. They took some beatings, grew and are learning. It shows what they went through is starting to pay off a little bit.
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