When it comes to Jessieville basketball, there hasn't been much that's shocked Coach Jared White this season.
He hasn't been blindsided with how competitive his team has been from the outset or has he been taken aback by the position the Lions find themselves in going into the second week of February.
But there is one thing in particular that's managed to leave him astonished at times, something that even the stringent of coaches could appreciate.
"We outrebound bigger teams," he said. "Actually, we talked about that at the beginning of the year because we don't have a guy over 6-1. That's kind of rare for a 3A school in high school basketball. We play bigger teams, we play teams with big strong post players, teams that really should dominate us on the glass, but they don't.
"We have a lot of guys that take pride in going in there, battling and grabbing those boards, especially on the offensive end. To be honest, I thought that rebounding would be an Achilles heel for us this season, but it hasn't, and that's a testament to the hard work the guys put in."
Size means very little to Jessieville, but effort has meant everything. Just ask Noah Futch, who's been combining both of those aspects since his freshman season to help evolve into one of the state's more well-rounded players.
The 6-1 senior guard is averaging 29.8 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.5 steals per game for Jessieville, which is zeroing in on the top seed from the 3A-7 Conference for the state tournament. The Lions beat then-first place Benton Harmony Grove 48-44 on Friday before taking down Centerpoint (XXXXXX) on Saturday to move into first place by a half-game. And it's no secret that Futch is one of the biggest reasons why.
"His growth, his IQ, the strength that he's added in the weight room, he's got it all," White said. "Noah's our strongest kid actually, and his maturity is off the charts. He's got a lot of mileage at the high school level so he's seen just about everything thrown at him defensively, but it doesn't really phase him.
"Last year, maybe a box-and-1 or some kind of face-guarding defense may have caused him to get caught up and try to go get it too much. But this year, he picks his spots and doesn't panic at all. We just know that when he gets the ball, it's trouble."
Futch doesn't mind being the Lions' troublemaker, especially if it means they're stock-piling victories.
Jessieville hasn't finished with a winning record or reached the state tournament since the 2019-20 season when Futch was a ninth grader. In his final game that season -- an 88-79 loss to Rivercrest in the opening round -- he finished with 23 points. He's continued to ascend every season.
He had a break-out sophomore year, one that was filled with plenty of stout outings, including 37-point masterpiece in a victory over Poyen. He carried that upward trajectory onto the AAU circuit during the following summer, which led to even bigger moments as a junior when he was eventually tabbed his conference's player of the year.
Now he's playing perhaps the best basketball of his four-year career in his final season with the Lions.
"I think my size and strength have helped me a lot," Futch said. "I've been working out a lot since the ninth grade, gotten bigger and stronger, and that's made a big difference. Honestly, I think the team in general has gotten stronger because our physicality isn't that bad when we're matched up with these bigger teams.
"We prepared for that a lot in the offseason, and that's kind of surprising to us because with us being smaller, I thought we'd have a hard time matching up. But we've battled all year."
What Futch has been able to do far exceeds his battle reference.
He's had multiple games in which he finished with double-doubles and put together a 10-game stretch where he averaged nearly 35 points. Futch really flexed his potential in the final game of that span when he dropped a career-high 53 points on 18-of-26 shooting (69.2%) in a 67-54 win at Bismarck on Jan. 28.
"I was locked in," Futch said. "I kind of just picked my spots well in that one and just let the game come to me. But really, it comes down to just wanting to win. That's my mindset, just give everything you have for your team to win.
"That includes setting my teammates up and getting them in the right positions to score. I'm going to give it all I've got no matter what."
Futch admitted that seeing defenses, such as extended face guarding, double teams and boxes, can be frustrating at times. But he said he takes that as a challenge and revealed that he's gotten used to it.
So much so that he mentioned that he likes seeing teams throw different things at him.
"It's interesting," he said. "It's something to play with. But I get fouled a lot, too, when it happens. It's all a part of the game, though. Just have to stay strong."
White aid he is hopeful the Lions, as a whole, can finish off the regular season just as strong. For everything his standout is doing, he's getting ample results from everyone else as well.
Still, there's work to be done in order for the Lions to get back into the postseason. But he said he feels good about their prospects because he's got a guy like Futch on his side.
"In that Bismarck game, he accounted for every made field goal that we had, whether it was scoring or assisting," White said. "That's unheard of. And it wasn't like the game was a blowout. We were leading by just two going into the fourth quarter, so we needed everything he gave us.
"But that's what he does. ... he gives everything he has, and his teammates feed off that. That's what we have to have if we're going to get to where want to go, which is the state tournament. We've just got to keep it up."
Futch agreed.
"We want to get either the No. 1 or No. 2 spot going into district and regionals," he said. "After that, hopefully we can carry that over into state, where we know anything can happen. We've just got to continue to play well."