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Returning second team all-conference selection Matt Ross hopes to lead the Dixon Dukes to bigger and better things this basketball season.

Last season was not kind to Dixon, which finished 6-23 overall and 1-9 in the NCIC Reagan. Ross sees different results ahead for this season’s squad.

“We’re going to have more than six wins this year. We’ll do a lot better,” said the 6-foot-7 Ross, a senior center who averaged 13 points and nearly nine rebounds per game last season. “So far things are going real good.

“We have a pretty solid lineup. We have a real good inside game and our guards are starting to shoot better each day.”

Ross is one of the Dukes’ three returning starters, along with 5-11 senior guard Garrett Kerr and 6-3 junior forward Preston Lumzy.

Also returning to the team are 5-10 senior point guard Nick Emmole and 5-10 sophomore guard Scott Goad.

Second-year head coach Justin Remington, whose team opens the season Monday at 7:30 p.m. at home with Sterling in the Sauk Valley Shootout, thinks a good start is crucial for his team.

“The Sauk Valley Shootout is more wide-open for us. We have just as good a chance as anybody else,” Remington said. “We definitely want to get some wins early to get confidence.”

Ross thinks the team will take a big step into the conference race.

“One of our goals is to go into every conference game trying to win every one,” he said. “I can see us being up there.”

Remington also expects improvement from the Dukes in the NCIC.

“We’ll be better than last year,” he said. “Of our nine conference losses, six or seven of them went down to the wire. We had chances to win some of those games.”

Ross expects more from himself this season as well.

“I like how things went for me last year,” he said. “But, I’m looking to improve on it. I’ve worked a lot in the summer. I was on some traveling teams.

“I want to take on a leadership role. I’m not one of the loudest guys, but I try to lead as much as I can.”