Gilman’s Hecker repeats as first-team all-conference pick

ALL-EASTERN CLOVERBELT BOYS BASKETBALL

While it was a tough season for the young and inexperienced Gilman Pirates, senior Andrew Hecker didn’t let that stop him from putting up a second consecutive outstanding season that earned him a spot on the 2020-21 All-Eastern Cloverbelt Conference boys basketball team.

Hecker led the conference in scoring and was one of two repeat selections to the six-member first team. Neillsville senior Braden Trunkel was the other one. With Hecker’s two straight first-team selections and Aaron Nagel’s in 2018-19, the Pirates have had a first-team representative on the All-ECC team the past three years.

The rest of this year’s first team includes Columbus Catholic seniors Jadon Nienast and Eden Jacobson, Greenwood senior Westen Schmitz and Neillsville sophomore Drew Brown. Columbus Catholic added two more second-team players and an honorable mentionee after winning the conference championship with a 13-1 league record.

Jacobson and Trunkel shared Co-Player of the Year honors. Trunkel averaged 17 points and 3.3 assists overall in 22 games played for the runner-up Warriors, who went 12-2 in the conference, 16-6 overall and won a WIAA Division 3 regional championship. Jacobson averaged 15.7 points and 8.7 rebounds overall in 23 games for the Dons.

Hecker averaged 20.4 points per game during Gilman’s 1-16 season, which was down four points per game from a year ago. But with the extreme youth and inexperience on the squad, he had to carry an even bigger load this year. He also led Gilman in rebounding, averaging in double figures in that department, and was a primary ball handler.

Hecker led Gilman in scoring in every game but one this season. He scored a season-high 36 points in the team’s lone win, a 63-60 non-conference victory at Cornell on Jan. 12. That was three off his career high of 39, which he hit twice last season.

Using his sweet left-handed shooting stroke, Hecker scored 28 points in a 6341 home loss to Colby on Feb. 1, which was one of the Pirates’ best outings of the season. He scored 25 points with a season-high four 3-pointers in an 81-39 loss to Greenwood on Jan. 15 and scored 22 points twice. The first time was Jan. 18 in an 83-28 loss at Greenwood and the second was Jan. 25 in a 79-24 home loss to Neillsville. He scored 21 points in Gilman’s 70-41 WIAA Division 5 regional loss at New Auburn.

Hecker scored 61% of the team’s points this season with 348. In two years with the team, he scored 928 points and likely would’ve broken the 1,000-point barrier had the Pirates played a full nonconference schedule this winter.

Neillsville had three total award winners in this year’s vote, while Colby, Loyal and Owen-Withee had two apiece. Greenwood finished third in the conference with a solid 10-4 mark.

With Granton unable to field a team this year, Eastern Cloverbelt teams played 14 league games apiece. Amazingly, the eight teams got every one of their 14 league games played.

The Pirates were led this season by first-year head coach Bobbi Marion. They will lose Hecker and second-leading scorer Isaac Wininger to graduation and hope for significant improvements by the returning players heading into 2021-22.