The King’s Fork High School boys’ basketball team was eliminated from the Heritage Summer League playoffs in the semifinals by Lakeland High School on July 23, but the Bulldogs went 5-4 in the league and gave coach Josh Worrell reason to feel positive.

“We basically had a different lineup every night, different starting lineup to see what kids could do different things,” he said. “Summer is a time just to evaluate, and so far, I think we’re doing OK.”

King’s Fork reached the state tournament for the second time in school history earlier this year, finishing as the Virginia High School League Group 4A state runner-up. That talented squad was led by a group of experience standouts, including Keith Stagg, now a rising senior.

Stagg was part of a shifting cast of players in the Heritage High School-based summer league, as vacations and Amateur Athletic Union basketball schedules conflicted at times, but Worrell got into some detail on what his players showed him.

“They’re doing a pretty good job of sharing the basketball,” he said. “Keith scores a lot of points, but he does a good job of sharing the wealth and looking for other people, as well. And defensively, they’ve done pretty good so far this summer. Offensively, we’ve had some games where we couldn’t score the ball or the ball wouldn’t get in the hoop, but overall, not too bad.”

Because the roster will be slightly different, Worrell said the Bulldogs will play a different style of basketball in the 2015-16 season. But he was encouraged to see a lot of returning players show through their play in the summer league that they are capable of taking on larger roles.

Rising senior Drequon Wilson will play on the wing for King’s Fork and can defend the post, and he continued to show his high level of athleticism this summer.

“He’s actually shooting the ball a little bit better this year,” Worrell said.

The coach said he very much expects rising senior Don Stancel, another wing player, to have an expanded role this coming season.

Worrell said that during the summer league, he observed that Stancel is “good defensively and rebounds the ball and attacks the basket hard. He’s just a really good team player, helps us out tremendously in a lot of different areas.”

Relatively new to the rotation is rising sophomore James Hatten.

“He was our (junior varsity) point guard last year,” Worrell said. “I moved him up at the end of the year once JV season was over just to get some more reps.”

At Heritage this summer, “he didn’t turn the ball over a lot, and his jump shot’s gotten a lot better, and he plays with a little more confidence,” Worrell said. “He’s another piece to what we do.”

Rising junior Raemaad Wright missed a lot of summer play due to various scheduling conflicts, but Worrell said, “I think he’s going to be a big piece.”

In his time on the court, Wright showed that “overall, he’s gotten a lot better, scoring around the basket, rebounding the basketball, being more of a force inside instead of being a little more timid,” the coach said.