Wright City boys basketball Coach Ryan Benz is holding strong to two beliefs — the road ahead will be challenging and his team can persevere.

“I told the boys I think our district is probably the toughest top to bottom in the state,” said Benz. “As a .500 team, we’re the bottom seed. We have a tough district.”

But that doesn’t discourage him.

“There’s no doubt in my mind we can win the district,” added Benz.

He realizes the Wildcats will have to play at their highest level if they expect to prevail from the Class 3 District 8 Tournament at Winfield next week. Wright City will open against top-seeded O’Fallon Christian on Monday at 5 p.m.

“If we play how we’re capable on both sides of the ball, there’s no doubt in my mind we can win this,” said Benz. “We just have to execute the way we can.”

Wright City has shown glimpses of excellence on both sides of the ball this season. Their latest two matchups included a lopsided setback to Clopton and a convincing win over Van-Far.

Benz pointed out two matchups where he felt the Wildcats excelled during the regular season.

“Against Owensville last Wednesday we played great defensively and offensively we got every shot we wanted to get,” said Benz. “We were running our quick hitters and knocking down layups off of those. Elsberry earlier in the year was a lot like that where we were able to control everything in the game with our press.”

One major key has been staying out of foul trouble, as the Wildcats experienced the consequences with one of their top scorers, J.J. McRoberts, on the bench recently.

“J.J is just steady,” said Benz. “He’s going to do a lot of little things, getting baskets for us and taking care of the ball, rebounding and playing good defense.”

McRoberts enters the postseason averaging 13 points and five rebounds per game.

Senior Dillon Seabaugh leads Wright City offensively with 15.1 points and 4 assists per contest.

“Dillon is going to score, but this year he’s been stepping into a leadership role, picking up his defense and wanting those tougher defensive assignments and that’s been big for us this year,” said Benz.

Wright City has limited its turnovers this season thanks to secure ballhandling.

“Branden taking care of the basketball,” said Benz. “As long as he does get going too fast, he’s an incredible point guard. He’s so quick it gets him in a little bit of trouble.”

Some of the Wildcats biggest contributors don’t often find themselves in the leading scorers column, includign John Pezold and Christian Ebersohl.

“John is kind of our secret weapon,” said Benz. “He’s not going to be flashy or score a lot of points. Every night he gets the toughest draw defensively, and he doesn’t back down from any challenge.”

“Christian is the glue of the team,” said Benz. “When he’s out on the court, we play better. He rebounds well, works hard defensively.”