BERNE — The season came to an end for the Berne-Knox-Westerlo boys’ basketball team last Tuesday. But Coach Andy Wright is already looking ahead to next year.

The Bulldogs lost to Hoosick Falls, 71-50, The Bulldogs trailed the whole game but fought hard.
"The score was not indicative of what happened," Wright said. "In the game, we were down by 17 points and we chipped it away to five with the press. No doubt about it they led the whole game. But we showed real heart."

The Bulldogs were going up against an experienced Hoosick Falls team.
"We’ve started two sophomores all year," Wright said. "And they are the second and third leading scorers on the team. Josh Skinner shot 35 three-pointers and I think he’s in the top 50 in the section. He is one of the top three-point shooters out of the thousand or so players in the area. The numbers don’t lie."

Skinner led the Bulldogs with 16 points against Hoosick Falls.

Wright is looking forward to next season when he gets to bring up some players from a successful junior-varsity team.
"We had a good j.v. program," the coach said. "The point guard is a varsity point guard and he’ll be starting next year. We just need to develop a post player. We need to fill the shoes of Andrew Elderd and Rick Ragone."

Elderd and Ragone are seniors who provided a lot of size inside for BKW the past couple of seasons.

The loss of those two players will change the way the Bulldogs will play next season.

‘We’ll run and gun’
"We’ll be out and running," Wright said. "We’ll run and gun and get up and down the court. We’ll press and play man-to-man. For three years, we’ve played zone," he said of the defensive strategy. "It’ll be the first year, I’ll be able to play man. It’s a great feeling for a coach to say that man-to-man we are better than the opponent."

The Bulldogs will also lose Tom Houck to graduation. Houck scored 13 points in last Tuesday’s game.
"Tom Houck is the kind of athlete that is tough to replace," Wright said. "His jumping ability and the way he could drive to the basket, we need to get that out of other kids. He had a lot of experience playing. We’ll miss Tom, Andrew, and Rick."

As far as the past season, Wright thought the Bulldogs could have been better than their 7-11 regular-season record.
"I was hoping to be a couple of games better," Wright said. "But we had the same record as last year. There were two or three games we should’ve won. But other than that, we’re heading in the right direction.
"The program has been put in place," Wright added. "We definitely turned this into a program. The kids will play in summer leagues and Amateur Athletic Union in the spring. Basketball is on the rise up here."

And the kids coming up have spent a lot of time playing basketball with each other.
"They’ve played together enough and they are friends off the court," Wright said. "We have four starters returning and three of them were starters. We have two starting positions open and we’ll bring up four or five players that have significant experience and minutes and a lot of time on the court. We have an athletic class with next year’s juniors and a tall class with the sophomores. Four are over six foot."

Wright said that having a freshmen team has also helped the program.
"They play a ninth-grade schedule and play 14 games," the coach said. "That gives them a lot of playing experience for the j.v."

Wright is confident that his team will challenge for a top spot in the Western Athletic Conference next year.
"Skinner and Lounsbury can play," Wright said. "And Rich Geist is tough. We have two kids with two more years and they have been playing varsity minutes. We had eight wins this year and we are capable of more good things.
"We are heading in the right direction," Wright added. "I wasn’t disappointed with the season, maybe a little bummed out. These kids like basketball and they play as much as they can. They’re all friends and they like each other."