Poll results: Here’s the high school boys basketball player of the week in southwest Illinois
Jake Ottensmeier of Highland 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, Ottensmeier, a sophomore guard, scored 17 points in a win against Civic Memorial and 17 points in a win against Gibault, which included drilling a shot from beyond half court at the halftime buzzer. He then posted 18 points in an IHSA Class 3A regional semifinal win against Jerseyville and entered the weekend averaging 14.5 points per game.
Ottensmeier tallied 88% of the votes to finish ahead of other BND nominees Daylen Byrd of Belleville West High School, Cameron Haag of Mater Dei High School, Byron Jones of Belleville East High School, Jordan Pickett of Belleville East High School, Cole Stuart of Freeburg High School and Tray Swygeart 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); Caleb Burton of O’Fallon High School and Jaliah Pelly of O’Fallon High School (Week 10); and Gannon Birkner of New Athens High School and Reagan Chigas of Triad High School (Week 11).
