Prospect Spotlight: Reid Gastner (2020)
Six-foot-4 junior wing Reid Gastner of Lake City can play with force, produce with skill, and does it all consistently for a winner. What separates Lake City from several other outstate contenders at the Class AA level? A lot of…
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Continue ReadingSix-foot-4 junior wing Reid Gastner of Lake City can play with force, produce with skill, and does it all consistently for a winner.
What separates Lake City from several other outstate contenders at the Class AA level? A lot of things. A few that come to mind are toughness, a rare chemistry throughout the line-up, and a very talented pair leading the way in Nathan Heise and Reid Gastner. That and this is a team with the juice to beat teams from every part of the state.
Lake City is ranked third in Class AA basketball after picking up wins over ranked teams like Mahtomedi from Class AAA and Clear Lake from Wisconsin plus handling their daily business against teams they should regularly defeat. The Tigers lost to Breck early in the year and were defeated by Matthew Hurt and his JM Rockets in the holiday event.
“I’m real happy where we are at right now,” Lake City Coach Greg Berge said. “It took us a good month into the season to find our roles and get kids to understand their roles early. And we had some hiccups early but what I like about our time now is that kids are really understanding their role. And they are at a point where the kids are a thriving in that role. Plus our bench is just vibrant so everybody is doing well in their role.
“We are really playing off of Reid and Nate a lot. We do a lot of two man stuff but we also have others that can score. There are good shooters and a really good guy inside. We have a section where you have to bring it every game and I like where we are right now, I really like our team. It’s a tight nit team that plays for each other and loves each and good things happen when you have a team like that.”
Reid Gastner is that guy inside scoring 16 a game for a Lake City team looking at a title run.
“The year is going pretty good,” Reid told NHR after scoring 27 in a win over Clear Lake (WI) at the Border Battle. “We came into this year needing players to find their own role and now we think we have found that role and we are all growing and expanding in that role. Now we are putting it all together as you just saw on the court. We are just getting better and better each game.”
Gastner scored on 8 of 12 field goals this past Saturday including 5 of 8 threes and made 8 of 9 foul shots. The range is there with the jumper but Reid also is very good with his back to the basket. He turned over each shoulder to attack and score plus faced-up to hit a short jumper or attack baseline to complete. Added seven boards and four assists to his game high 27 points.
“I’ve tried to expand my range because I used to just be know as an inside player,” Gastner said. “I’m shifty in (the paint) but I wanted to become more of a dual threat type of player that can score outside.”
Minnehaha Academy is the team being hunted in Class AA they have the back to back championships and some of the state’s elite talents. But Lake City is one of their top contenders. Section 1AA ranks with one of the toughest groups to get through in the state so that is something that stands in the way of the Tigers.
“We have to have confidence in ourselves as a team and we want to go to the top but we know there are tough teams that we have to beat to get there,” Reid said. “Our section is always interesting. You have to take one game at a team there and see how it goes. We just have to play our game. Some teams like to play fast but we like to take it slow at times and we need to simply play our game.”
Reid told us that he’s hearing from a number of D2 schools at this point.
“Reid in my opinion is one of the most underrated players in the state,” Coach Berge said. “He is one of the best defenders in the state, I would put him up against anyone. He has had to guard so many good players since he was in ninth grade on up. He’s always in the right spot defensively, he’s a great rebounder, a great passer, and offensively he can put up 20 or 25 a night.
“Reid is a 40 percent three-point shooter that can also score inside. Reid is one of those guys that does a little bit of everything for you plus he makes everybody around him better.”