In his first season at the helm of the Alliance boys basketball program, Jordan Mills guided the Bulldogs (13-11) to their first winning season since 2020-21 before falling 91-77 to McCook in a B-8 Sub-District semifinal.
In about five months, Mills and his staff will return a solid nucleus of players that may just have the talent to break another slide. Alliance has not been to the state basketball tournament since 2019-20 when they lost to Western Conference rival Scottsbluff 53-38 in the Class B quarterfinals.
"(Our) goal is to get into a district final game and try to make an appearance at state," Mills said. "Overall, just get better as a program and do the work in the offseason that is necessary to make jumps as a program."
Mills did lose seniors Seth Meyring, Payton Boyer and Rafael Itavo who combined for 23.3 points, 12.3 rebounds, 6.4 assists, 2.9 steals and 0.8 blocked shots a year ago.
The second-year coach, however, does return the talents of Espen Lanik (5-9 Senior) who led the way with 17.5 points an outing last winter. Lanik also grabbed 3.8 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 2.4 steals while Trevor Zurn (5-9 Senior Guard) recorded 6.9 points, 4.0 rebounds, 1.0 Assists, 0.8 steals and 0.3 blocked shots an outing.
Lexton Salcido (6'0 Senior Shooting Guard, Small Forward), meanwhile, ripped the cords for 4.0 points and was credited with 2.4 rebounds, 0.9 assists, 0.8 steals and 0.1 blocked shots a year ago.
Jadon Guerra (6'1 Sophomore Power Forward, Center) and Devin Graham (6'0 Junior Forward, Shooting Guard) added 4.5 points, 4.4 rebounds, 0.6 assists, 0.4 steals and 0.3 blocked shots collectively.
