ShawneeDispatch.com

Playing side-by-side with the most prolific 3-point scorer in Kansas City Kansas Community College history, Scott Fruehling quietly wrote himself into the Blue Devil record book.

Only the eighth Blue Devil player to go over the 100 mark in 3-point goals, Fruehling’s 120 treys have him No. 6 on the all-time career list as well as sixth for a single season during a year he was a key factor in the Blue Devils (21-9) reaching the 21-win plateau for only the fourth time in history.

A 6-foot-2 sophomore guard from Shawnee Mission Northwest, Fruehling finished the season with a flurry. After setting a career high with six treys in an 88-66 win at Neosho, his two treys were crucial in KCKCC’s 69-62 upset of league-leading Coffeyville. He then finished out regular-season play with five 3-pointers and a career-high 21 points in a 75-72 near-upset at Independence, five more in the Blue Devils’ 87-75 overtime win against Johnson County and six in the final 85-42 rout of Fort Scott.

With 82 3-pointers in 30 games, Fruehling ranked fourth in the Jayhawk Conference with an average of 2.73 per game. Between Fruehling and Derick Denny, the conference leader with 4.35 per game, the Blue Devils were the runaway leader in both 3-point goals (8.64) and shooting percentage (.401).

By scoring in double figures in 14 of his last 20 games, Fruehling moved his scoring average into double figures at 10.5 points per game — more than double his 4.5 average of a year ago when he played in all 31 games and started six.

The marked improvement can be attributed to a summer of practice which helped him add more than 100 points to his field goal shooting percentage, from .315 to .418.

“He’s probably done as much work with his shot as anyone I’ve ever had and really improved on his shooting over his freshman year,” said Jon Oler, who is in his 11th season as KCKCC head coach. “He’s also become quite the leader as a sophomore. Our most vocal leader, he has a real good basketball IQ and helps everyone else on the floor.”

A year after winning just 10 games, Fruehling helped KCKCC post its third 20-plus win season in the past five years.

“I think the sophomore leadership has been the difference, plus we have a lot of weapons we didn’t have last year,” Fruehling said.

A three-year letterman and two-year starter at SMNW, Fruehling averaged 12 points at the shooting guard position as a junior before moving to point guard as a senior where he led in assists and averaged eight points on a team that won the Sunflower League and finished 16-6.

He followed in brother Tyler’s footsteps in coming to KCKCC. The son of Todd and Suzy Fruehling, there’s another older brother, Bubba, and another promising cager, Trey, a two-year starter as a junior at Northwest.

Where he’ll continue his basketball career remains up in the air.

“I have no idea what I’ll do,” he said. “I’d like to go to an NCAA Division II school. Coach Oler has said just to wait it out and see what happens.”

“He’ll have plenty of opportunities,” promises Oler. “There’s a lot of interest in NAIA schools.”

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