Player of the Week: Riley Helmers
Last season Riley Helmers played in just nine games for Algona and did not score once; this season, he’s the man.
The 6-foot-4 post has been filling up the stat sheet night-in and night-out, and leads the Bulldogs in steals and rebounds while scoring 13.3 points on some efficient 62 percent shooting.
He had his best game of the season last Monday during a 22 point win over Hampton-Dumont, scoring a career high 26 points and adding 7 rebounds for good measure.
“Against Hampton my guards really got me the ball well when I was posting up,” said Helmers. “They really fed me well, it’s pretty easy (to get) buckets when my guards find me like that.”
Algona suffered two losses later in the week, but Helmers continued his stat-stiffing ways, earning a double-double last Tuesday, and going for 6 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals in a two point loss to Bishop Garrigan on Thursday.
“On the defensive end coach really drills us in practice about being in the right spots, and I think that really helps with the steals. And we work a lot on rebounding too, just getting a box on somebody. And then just being athletic and being able to jump really helps me get rebounds,” said Helmers.
“I don’t really go into games thinking I’m going to put up a lot of numbers, but just my style of play, it kind of comes out that way.”
Despite Helmers’ strong play this season, the Bulldogs have limped out to a 3-5 start, three of those losses have come by three points or less.
“A few of our games we’ve lost by just a couple points, so if we did a few things different we could easily be 6-2 right now,” said Helmers, who is expecting his team to mount a second-half comeback this season.
Helmers trailed all week to Mount Pleasant’s Brady Sartorius in the Player of the Week voting, but mounted a late comeback and came away the victor.
“I have some really good friends and they were on there helping me,” he said. “I have a lot of people here helping me out.”
Week 4 Voting Totals
Riley Helmers — 995
Brady Sartorius — 650
Matthew Hill — 358
Dylan Hundley — 284
Thomas Hensley — 100