2020 Team Captains Jace Easley and Conor McCaffrey were both selected to the All-State 1st team on Friday, just a week after the State Tournament was postponed due to the increase of Covid-19 cases in the United States.
The Our Savior's Eagles (28-6) overall and an impressive (16-4) in conference, entered the State Tournament as the #1 seed and the heavy favorites to bring home the State Title. Even though the State Tournament is not being played, it still hurts to not be able to watch Easley and McCaffrey bring home a State Title to Springfield and that Our Savior's gym. A gym which hosted so many big games this season from Pleasant Plains, to New Berlin and Bethel Morton.
As individual honors go, McCaffrey and Easley were both automatic selections for the All-State Team and it is more than well-deserved.
The Eagles coached by Phillip Heppe (50-18) career record, entered the 2020 season with massive drama. Both Conor McCaffrey and Jace Easley were hours away from leaving the Our Savior's Lutheran Basketball Program and transferring out to look for better opportunites.
In response, Coach Heppe, hired Assistant Coach Brian Mercier, a basketball genius who McCaffrey and Easley both liked, also Heppe made sure that Logan Allen would be seeing playing time, something Easley and McCaffrey both needed to see happen.
The 2019 team that finished 22-12 with a 8th place State finish needed to see improvement, both Easley and McCaffrey didn't see that happening after Assistant Coach Brent Flesner left the sideline. Heppe's ambition to get the team better quickly, convienced McCaffrey and Easley to both come back and lead a team that needed leaders.
Jace Easley
Coming into the season, Easley already had high expectations, during the 2019 season, he was the leading scorer at just north of 19 points per game, while also playing good defense and rebounding the basketball.
Going into the 2020 season the main question with Easley was his ability to playmake for the rest of the team and handle high heats of ball pressure, which teams like East St. Lincoln and Christ Lutheran would bring to the table.
Even though Easley had his fair share of ball-handling mishaps during some of the games, his playmaking would improve and Easley would finish the season averaging 27 points per game, bringing in 11.1 rebounds, a massive increase from 2019, and averging 6.4 assists per game, 2-3 higher than last season.
Overall, a 27-11-6 season on 52% shooting from the field and 44% from 3 is deserving of a 1st team All-State selection, and Easley was deserving of the State Player of the Year as well, that he won just yesterday.
Conor McCaffrey
The single most intriguing player on the whole roster. McCaffrey came into this season as a mystery, a constant enigma, nobody knew what his production was going to be, nobody had any clue what he was going to bring to the table in 2020. After a pretty solid 2019 season averging just under 18 points per game and racking up over 10 assists per game, while shooting lights out from the field, the Eagles and their fanbase had high hopes.
Going into the 2020 season, McCaffrey grew considerably, going from 5'3 in 2019 to 5'8 in 2020, also gaining 30 pounds as well, giving him a new outlook on how he could play the game. McCaffrey in 2019 sat out around the 3-point line waiting for a shot to be created for him, but in 2020, he could create his own shot and open up good shots for Logan Allen and Jeremiah Perkins around the basket.
Even though McCaffrey looked a little shy of his own skill set, throughout the year he really developed into the player that everybody knew he could be. McCaffrey also averged 27 points per game, 7 rebounds, and 10 assists per game. Keeping the same amount of assists per game as 2019 and bringing up the scoring average by over 10 points per game is super impressive.
Overall, a 27-8-10 season on 57% shooting and 52% from 3 is extremely impressive. Mainly since McCaffrey went lights out averging 37.3 points per game during the 3 games that Easley was out with the broken nose. Those wins were against Mount Pulaski, New Berlin and Christ Lutheran, teams that are not cupcakes.
Conor McCaffrey and Jace Easley joined a Varsity Basketball team that had just gone 12-21 the season prior, and turned those two seasons into a 22-12 8th place state finish and a 28-6 season that was cut short and probably would have ended in a State Title.
This is the first time in the history of Our Savior's that two players have been selected to the All-State 1st, and what an honor it is for these 2 boys to be able to claim this honor. Conor McCaffrey and Jace Easley are a dynamic duo, they play with and off of each other everygame, their best friends on and off the court, and now they are both All-State 1st team players.