Becker will bring his basketball skills to Mt. Marty

HARTINGTON — Cedar Catholic senior Matthew Becker will be heading north across the river to play his next four years of basketball.

Becker signed with Mount Marty College last Tuesday at the Msgr. Werner Activities Center and he didn’t mince words with what his goals are entering into his college career.

“I want to be Freshman of the Year in the GPAC,” said the Trojan senior.

Becker led his team in scoring this past year and finished third on the Cedar Catholic All-Time Scorers List.

Standing at 6’4”, Becker garnered attention with his shooting and dunking ability, along with his defensive coverage around the rim. He now moves to a collegiate team where he will no longer be one of the biggest guys on the floor for his team.

While he won’t necessarily be down in the post as much as he was in high school, Becker thinks he can t into the Lancers play-style well.

“Every team wants to be quick, but looking at it now we have a few big guys but not true posts. So we are going to have to get out and run quite a bit.”

Becker joins a program that has won six games over the past two years but had a young freshmen presence this past year.

“I just saw that the community bought into everything and the program is on the rise, really. Everything is going up from here.”

A curveball came Becker’s way the Monday after he signed when Mount Marty head coach Cody Schilling announced he will be leaving the program.

Becker thought on his decision and whether he would decommit, but he remained firm on a comment he made when he signed with the Lancers.

“I knew that I didn’t want to have to make this decision again so I just sat down and wrote some things out, like the pros and cons of each school I was getting recruited by,” said Becker. “I just based it off of that and I recognized each school’s negatives and positives, and it ultimately came down to Mount Marty.”

One thing that will be nice for Becker is the proximity to home. Mount Marty in Yankton is just a short drive away from where he was raised in Hartington.

“It’s pretty big. [My family] can come over and see games if they want to, and I can also come home and get a meal and things like that.”

Now that Becker has his college plans gured out, he can enjoy the rest of his senior year, including the track & eld season where he will look to be a state quali er for the second time in his high school career.

He qualified as a junior in the high jump.

Overall though, Becker looks forward to absorbing every moment in the remaining days he has as a Trojan.

“[I want to] take it all in. There is not much time left so you have to take advantage of it.”

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