Poll results: Here’s the high school boys basketball player of the week in southwest Illinois
Gannon Birkner of New Athens High School is the winner of this week’s Belleville News-Democrat Boys Player of the Week high school basketball poll, as selected by readers of bnd.com.
In recent high school basketball games, Birkner, a junior center, posted 21 points/8 rebounds/2 steals in a loss to Okawville; 28 points/9 rebounds/4 steals in a win against Dupo; 30 points/5 rebounds/2 steals in a win against Lebanon; 23 points/7 rebounds/3 steals in a loss to Carlyle; 14 points in a loss to Marissa; and 17 points in a win against Roxana. Birkner entered the weekend averaging 20.3 points per game for the 15-15 Yellow Jackets.
Birkner tallied 88% of the votes to finish ahead of other BND nominees Jimeque Harvey of Cahokia High School, Ty Lenhardt of Waterloo High School, Jordan Pickett of Belleville East High School, Jack Steckler of Columbia High School and Jake Wilkinson of Collinsville High School. The poll ended at 11:59 p.m. Thursday.
To be clear, this poll is not scientific. In fact, we invite you to vote as many times as you want. It’s all for fun, BND readers.
Anyone can nominate a varsity boys or girls high school basketball player for an upcoming poll by emailing gvartanian@bnd.com. The next poll will appear on the BND’s website — www.bnd.com — at 5 a.m. Tuesday.
Past poll winners: Tyler Lunning of O’Fallon High School (Week 1), Dylan Murphy of Columbia High School (Week 2), Brady Moore of Breese Central High School (Week 3), Collinsville Prairie Farms Holiday Classic (Week 4), Kaden Augustine of Gibault Catholic High School (Week 5), Natalie Peterson of Freeburg High School (Week 6), Sydney Harris of Edwardsville High School (Week 7), Kaylyn Wylie of Granite City High School and Lunning (Week 8), Kylie Kisgen of Freeburg High School and Lane Otten of Freeburg High School (Week 9) and Caleb Burton of O’Fallon High School and Jaliah Pelly of O’Fallon High School (Week 10).
