Last season as a sophomore, Whitehall’s Luke Keppel realized how he needed to take his game to another level at DeSales University, and he was also reminded about some simple nuances about the game.

“The biggest obstacle I’ve had to overcome last year was just being and staying confident and trusting my ability with what I can do on the court,” recalled Keppel, who was a career 1,000-point scorer at Whitehall. “I was playing very heavy minutes where I was playing 35-40 minutes in many games, which was pretty tough.

“We were a fairly young team with a couple freshmen who were getting big minutes and stepped up huge for us.”

Keppel made 26 starts last season, averaging 32.5 minutes per contest. He averaged 12.7 points per game and 4.6 rebounds per game. He shot .440 from the field, 37 percent from three-point land (57-154), and 81.2 percent from the foul line.

It was a huge bump from his freshman year when he played in 25 games and made two starts. Keppel averaged 18.1 minutes with 7.4 points and 2.1 rebounds. He shot 37-90 (.411) from the three-point line. He was in double-digits 16 times and had a career-high 23 points against Lebanon Valley Feb. 26.

In his transition from year one to two, Keppel understood not to take anything for granted.

“The biggest thing I’ve learned from last year was how important it is to communicate on every possession offensively and defensively,” said Keppel. “There were many possessions last year on defense where I gave up some baskets just by not communicating. Every possession is so valuable and you can’t afford to make simple mistakes like not communicating.”

This summer, Keppel again played in the Catasauqua and the North Catasauqua summer leagues, averaging better than 15 points per game in both leagues.

He planned to use his summer play to sharpen himself for his junior season.

“Some things I’m working on this summer are just some simple things like my speed, ball handling, being able to create my own good shot,” said Keppel. “I’m also working on my conditioning, so my body is in better shape than it was last year when I’m playing those 35-40 minute games.”