After struggling to sub .500 records during his freshman and sophomore seasons, Dillon Juelfs and his Leyton teammates produced an 18-5 mark before falling short of the Nebraska boys state basketball tournament last season.
This winter, Chris Morgan's Warrior ball club hopes Juelfs' marksmanship will help Leyton take the next step and reach Nebraska's version of March Madness for the first time since 2014.
Morgan's lethal weapon made half or more of his 3-point shots in 11 games a year ago and is Nebraska's top returning 3-point shooter after he drilled 45.2 percent of his shots from beyond the arc a year ago.
Juelfs sank five of six long range shots and scored 25 points when the Warriors upended Bayard 75-70 last February. He also scored a career high 26 points in an 83-48 win over Minatare last January after sinking four of six shots from beyond the arc.
Juelfs was tough to shut down. The senior sank 73-of-155 (47.1 percent) field goals and swished over 46 percent of his shots from the floor a year ago. Juelfs did make 19 of 36 shots from the charity stripe while leading the Warriors with 14.5 points and pulling down 6.8 rebounds a contest.
Conestoga junior Noah Simones returns after making 45 percent of his 3-point tries last season, the second highest returning percentage from 2021-22, and Alex Wilcoxson of Gretna stretched opposing defenses with a 44.9 3-point percentage.
St. Mary's Isaac Everitt and Paiton Hoefer of Elgin/Pope John round out this week's Top 5. Classes A, C1, D1 and D2 are all represented in this week's Top 10. But that doesn't mean Classes B and C2 are void of dangerous shooters.
Platteview's Alex Draper leads Nebraska's second largest classification with 36.9-percent shooting from beyond the arc a year ago while Ty Robinson of Maxwell fires away at a 35.4-percent clip, tops in Class C2.
In order to be considered for this week's Top 10, a returning player had to make at least 50 3-pointers a year ago. As you browse through the Top 10, listed on the line below each player's name is that player's 3-point field goal, total field goal and free throw shooting numbers as well as his total points scored for the year.
Alex Wilcoxson returns for Gretna as one of the state's top sharpshooters. (Photo: Samuel Mfinanga)
1. Dillon Juelfs, Leyton (Dalton) — 45.2 Percent56 3PM-124 3PA | 129 FGM-279 FGA | 19 FTM-36 FTA | 333 Points
2. Noah Simones, Conestoga (Murray) — 45.0 Percent63 3PM-140 3PA | 150 FGM-319 FGA | 36 FTM-44 FTA | 399 Points
3. Alex Wilcoxson, Gretna — 44.9 Percent62 3PM-138 3PA | 113 FGM-245 FGA | 59 FTM-77 FTA | 347 Points
4. Isaac Everitt, St. Mary's (O'Neill) — 43.0 Percent59 3PM-138 3PA | 112 FGM-256 FGA | 59 FTM-84 FTA | 342 Points
5. Paiton Hoefer, Elgin/Pope John (Elgin) — 42.5 Percent54 3PM-127 3PA | 136 FGM-295 FGA | 62 FTM-91 FTA | 388 Points
6. Carter Tempelmeyer, Lincoln East (Lincoln) — 42.0 Percent55 3PM-131 3PA | 149 FGM-298 FGA | 59 FTM-67 FTA | 412 Points
6. Blake Hinrichs, Ord — 42.0 Percent55 3PM-131 3PA | 83 FGM-214 FGA | 58 FTM-78 FTA | 279 Points
8. Drew Morrow, O'Neill — 40.9 Percent63 3PM-154 3PA | 128 FGM-293 FGA | 58 FTM-85 FTA | 377 Points
9. Garret Johnson, Holdrege — 40.9 Percent76 3PM-186 3PA | 97 FGM-225 FGA | 5 FTM-9 FTA | 275 Points
10. Jaden Jackson, Bellevue West (Bellevue) — 40.4 Percent57 3PM-141 3PA | 102 FGM-215 FGA | 18 FTM-24 FTA | 279 Points
