{"id":167845,"date":"2019-03-20T19:29:18","date_gmt":"2019-03-21T00:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=167845"},"modified":"2019-03-20T19:29:18","modified_gmt":"2019-03-21T00:29:18","slug":"jays-walters-skunberg-boys-class-a-all-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=167845","title":{"rendered":"Jays Walters, Skunberg, Boys Class “A” All-State"},"content":{"rendered":"
JAMESTOWN (AP) \u2013 It\u2019s not every season the North Dakota Mr. Basketball award winner isn\u2019t the verbally committed NCAA Division I athlete on his team. But that was the reality this winter for Jamestown High School boys basketball coach Jacoby Lloyd and the 27-0 Blue Jays.<\/div>\n
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Jamestown\u2019s Mason Walters \u2014 Mr. Basketball 2019 \u2014 and Boden Skunberg headline this season\u2019s crop of Class A boys basketball all-state recipients announced Wednesday, March 20. Both Walters and Skunberg, a junior who says he\u2019ll don the green and gold for North Dakota State in 2020-21, join Bismarck Century\u2019s Treyton Mattern, West Fargo\u2019s Luke Lennon and Fargo Davies\u2019 Braeton Motschenbacher on the all-state first team.<\/div>\n
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The second team consists of Bismarck\u2019s Joe Jahner, Mandan\u2019s Elijah Klein, Minot\u2019s Alex Schimke, West Fargo Sheyenne\u2019s Christian Kuntz and Devils Lake\u2019s Grant Nelson. The teams were chosen by members of the North Dakota Associated Press Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association.<\/div>\n
Jamestown rolled to a seventh state championship in boys basketball earlier this month behind the stellar combo of Walters and Skunberg. Both surpassed the school\u2019s previous single-season scoring record of 554 points, with Skunberg setting the new mark at 637 to Walters\u2019 571.<\/div>\n
Skunberg, a 6-foot-5 guard who averaged 23.6 points, 7.9 rebounds, 2 assists and 1.3 steals per game, was asked to supply the Blue Jays with scoring. He flourished from all three levels, knocking down 54 3-pointers at a clip of 42 percent, while averaging 8.8 points in the paint.<\/div>\n
Skunberg has tallied 1,277 career points \u2014 68 behind the JHS record \u2014 with a season left to play. He also set the Blue Jays\u2019 single-game scoring record this season at 49 points.<\/div>\n
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\u201cBoden let the game come to him a lot more this year, and he\u2019s still getting better,\u201d Lloyd said. \u201cHis basketball IQ is off the charts. He\u2019s a gym rat, and truly had that winner\u2019s mentality to do whatever the team needed him to do to make the season as successful as possible.\u201d<\/div>\n
Walters, a 6-8 senior forward committed to his hometown University of Jamestown Jimmies in 2019-20, shot a blistering 71 percent from inside the 3-point arc. But Walters proved he could knock down the deep shot as well, burying three first-half triples in Jamestown\u2019s eight-point victory over Mandan in the West Region tournament championship game March 2.<\/div>\n
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An all-state second team selection as a junior, Walters produced per-game averages of 21.1 points, 11.7 rebounds, 1.3 blocks and 1.1 assists. Jamestown\u2019s second Mr. Basketball award winner ever wrapped up his prep career scoring 1,187 points, fourth in JHS history.<\/div>\n
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Jamestown defeated Fargo Davies 66-49 in the Class A state championship game March 9 in Bismarck, becoming just the fourth Class A boys basketball team to win an undefeated state title. Skunberg and Walters are the first Blue Jays to be named to the all-state first team since Mr. Basketball finalist John Ruff in 1991, and are also the 10th teammates since 1977 to receive the honor in the same season.<\/div>\n
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\u201cWe knew we were going to be focusing quite a bit of our offense around Mason,\u201d Lloyd said. \u201cHe worked really hard last summer, and we didn\u2019t get to show off his 3-point shot as much as we would\u2019ve liked because he was so efficient around the basket. His game is just expanding more and more, and he should have a good career at UJ.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Mattern had quite the career at Bismarck Century. The 6-2 senior guard and Mr. Basketball finalist finished second in all-time scoring for the Patriots with 1,179 points, while also setting the school\u2019s single-game scoring record at 40 and overall single-season scoring mark at 642.<\/div>\n
In three years on varsity, Mattern helped guide the Patriots to a record of 65-16 and a state tournament championship in 2018. Committed to continue his basketball career at the University of Mary, Mattern\u2019s scoring average of 23.78 points this season was tops in the state, and complemented his 4.6 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game.<\/div>\n
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\u201cIn all my years of coaching, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve had a player have to work as hard as he had to work just to get the ball,\u201d said Century coach Darin Mattern, Treyton\u2019s father. \u201cHe handled that very well, with all the different defenses and things teams tried throughout the season. I think first and foremost he\u2019d credit his teammates with the way they helped him through the course of the season, which gave us an opportunity to have some success.\u201d<\/div>\n
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The Patriots finished the season third at the state tournament at 18-9. Mattern has also been a starter in both football and baseball at Century.<\/div>\n
\u201cI was proud of the fact he was a three-sport athlete, something we strongly encourage in our school,\u201d coach Mattern said. \u201cOnce he dedicates himself fully to basketball itself, I think he has some bright days ahead of him.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Lennon, a Mr. Basketball finalist and all-state second team selection as a junior, helped West Fargo to an overall record of 87-21 during four varsity seasons. A starter since his sophomore campaign, the 6-5 center ranks No. 1 in career rebounds (777) and No. 6 in career points (1,133) for the Packers.<\/div>\n
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\u201cHe\u2019s arguably one of the best players to come through here with all his stats,\u201d said West Fargo coach Adam Palczewski. \u201cHe always wanted to do the dirty work, before he was our main scorer.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Palczewski credits West Fargo assistant coaches Nate Knudsen and Nate Althoff with coaching up Lennon\u2019s post game. Lennon, who picked up East Region senior player of the year honors, produced per-game averages of 20.4 points and 9.8 rebounds, while helping the Packers to a 21-6 season and fifth-place finish at the state tournament. Lennon is committed to play football at North Dakota.<\/div>\n
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\u201cWe have some great coaches for our posts, and Luke took what they said to heart,\u201d Palczewski said.<\/div>\n
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Motschenbacher lit things up from the perimeter all season for state runner-up Fargo Davies. The Mr. Basketball finalist and all-state second team selection as a junior pushed 75 3-pointers through the hoop at a torrid pace for the 24-3 Eagles \u2014 the only other team besides Jamestown to have been ranked No. 1 in this season\u2019s Class A media poll.<\/div>\n
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\u201cIf you can shoot it, you can shoot it,\u201d said Fargo Davies coach Bart Manson. \u201cTo make 75 3-pointers and shoot 47 percent on the year? That\u2019s just crazy.\u201d<\/div>\n
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The 6-2 senior guard put up 20.5 points, 5.4 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.8 steals per game for the East Region tournament champion Eagles, to go along with a 51-percent average in total field goal makes. Motschenbacher has yet to announce a college commitment.<\/div>\n
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\u201cHe\u2019s got some decisions to make,\u201d Manson said. \u201cHe wanted to play out the year and see what happens.\u201d<\/div>\n
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All-state second team:<\/strong><\/div>\n
Joe Jahner, 6-1, Sr., G, Bismarck (20.6 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 2.5 apg<\/div>\n
Elijah Klein, 6-7, Jr., F, Mandan (19.8 ppg, 12.1 rpg, 1.2 bpg)<\/div>\n
Alex Schimke, 6-2, Sr., G, Minot (15 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 3.5 apg, 1.3 bpg)<\/div>\n
Christian Kuntz, 6-1, Sr., G, West Fargo Sheyenne (18.1 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 4 apg, 1.9 spg)<\/div>\n
\u00a0Grant Nelson, 6-8, Jr., F, Devils Lake (16.4 ppg, 11.8 rpg, 5 bpg)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JAMESTOWN (AP) \u2013 It\u2019s not every season the North Dakota Mr. Basketball award winner isn\u2019t the verbally committed NCAA Division I athlete on his team. But that was the reality this winter for Jamestown High School boys basketball coach Jacoby Lloyd and the 27-0 Blue Jays. Jamestown\u2019s Mason Walters \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":67207,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-167845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=167845"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":167846,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167845\/revisions\/167846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/67207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=167845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=167845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=167845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}