Wright City Boys Basketball Coach Ryan Benz had plenty of positive feedback for each of his players following the season. It’s why he would have likely nominated all of them for postseason honors had their been enough spots.

Unfortunately, Benz had to narrow his selections and collaborate with other Eastern Missouri Conference coaches to select those most deserving players in the league.

It resulted in the Wildcats landing two spots on the EMO All-Conference team.

Senior Dillon Seabaugh claimed first-team honors, while classmate J.J. McRoberts was named to the second team.

Despite missing a few a conference games, Seabaugh managed to lead the team in scoring with 15.1 points per game. He was also tops in assists, being a facilitator for his teammates with 4.1 assists per contest.

“He was a really good ballplayer for us, and everybody knew he was one of our better scoring threats, so they would put their best defender on him,” said Benz. For him to continue to score even better than he did last year was a plus for his nomination.”

Benz says there were two areas this year in which Seabaugh excelled.

“He was a leader last year but became more of a vocal leader this year,” said Benz. “He showed the younger guys the things they should be doing on the court. Also, his defensive effort improved significantly this year, to where he was wanting to guard the other team’s best player. I really appreciate him stepping up in those two roles.”

Also key in handling the ball for the Wildcats, McRoberts provided more of a lead-by-example role. He was just behind Seabaugh statistically, providing 13 points and five rebounds a game.

“It wasn’t always verbal leadership but demonstrating on the court by example,” said Benz. “He’s definitely the type of player who deserves the first team recognition. He’s quiet out there and not flashy. We can look at games, and he might score 15 and have 10 rebounds and you don’t even realize he’s out on the floor.”

Benz says McRoberts’ presence was especially helpful in managing game situations that might cause emotions to shift too high or low.

“There were frustrating moments when the ball wasn’t going in, or he’d get a couple foul calls not go his way. He didn’t get emotional. He kept it even keel, and we had other guys emotional. He always seemed steady. If we got overly high on our emotions, we’d get it to him and he’d calm everybody down.”