Knowing that you were losing nearly 90 percent of your team’s scoring before the basketball season started might be cause for concern, but it hasn’t been lately for Lake Mills head coach Kyle Menke.

After starting the season 1-6 the Bulldogs have rattled off six consecutive victories and pushed their record to 7-6 overall and 5-2 in the North Iowa Conference, placing them third in the conference, a half game behind Garner-Hayfield for second place.

Behind a cast of sophomores, juniors and seniors that saw little to no varsity action last season, Lake Mills has become a surprise in the North Iowa Conference this season. At the center of the turnaround has been junior Chris Throne.

Throne played in 20 games last season and was the ninth man off the bench for the Bulldogs last season. He averaged 3.4 points per game last season and was the team’s top returning scorer.

“I think of the 10 percent of the scoring that we were returning, he was about 7 or 8 of it,” Menke said.

This season Throne is averaging 17.9 points a game, tied for second in the conference and he is the conference’s top 3-point shooter.

“I’ve never had a kid that has had to do that before, where you’ve gone from the ninth man and maybe gets seven minutes a game a lot of nights to the go-to guy,” Menke said. “I think he pretty much had it figured out there pretty early that he was going to have to be a primary scorer for us.”

At 6-foot-3, Throne creates matchup problems with his size and perimeter shooting. Against quicker players, he’ll post them up, bigger players he’ll draw them outside with his 3-point shooting.

“He’s such a versatile offensive player,” Menke said. “He’s as comfortable posting a guy up as he is stepping out and shooting the 3s. That is just a really nice combination to have at your disposal as a coach.”

Throne put in a lot of hours in the gym during the summer playing in a summer league and coming to open gym to fine tune his game for the upcoming season. He’s just beginning to see the fruits of his labors after a sluggish start to the season.

Early on it looked like the Bulldogs might be in for a long season. Lake Mills started the year 1-6 and didn’t pick up its first conference win until Jan. 6 against Osage.

Throne scored 15 points in that game to lead Lake Mills and four others scored in double figures in a 67-44 win. The Bulldogs haven’t lost since.

“The month of January has been as enjoyable of a time as I’ve had coaching,” Menke said. “Just to see kids, who may have struggled early in the year, start to get things figured out a little bit. Chris has been a big part of that.”

Throne has become a threat that opponents have tried to neutralize. It’s not an easy task because of Throne’s court awareness.

“Belmond put in a really quick kid on Chris and they really tried to deny him the ball on the perimeter. Chris was smart enough to make sure he really crashed the offensive boards and got a few putbacks in there and we were able to get him the ball on the blocks a couple times,” Menke said. “He’s just very, very versatile.”

Throne finished with 22 points as Lake Mills won a close contest 51-50.

Throne was at his finest against conference leader Forest City last Tuesday when he scored a season-high 27 points and sunk five 3-pointers to lead Lake Mills past the Indians who were undefeated in conference play at the time.

The win was a benchmark for a young squad that endured early season struggles.

“That was a fun night to be a coach just to see the kids building confidence and going out there and beating a good ball club,” Menke said.

Menke said he was proud of the way the team handled a fourth quarter surge from Forest City. The Bulldogs held an 11-point lead in the fourth, but the Indians had trimmed it to two with plenty of time to play.

“It was one of the better regular season wins that we have had in the years that I’ve been coaching, especially considering the inexperience of our group and the way they were willing to execute the plan and get the job done,” Menke said.

With players from three different classes in the lineup, there was a lack of familiarity between the players at the start of the season. Now, the squad has started to learn how to play with each other.

“It’s three different grades and we never really played together,” Throne said. “We kind of gelled and figured out our strengths and weaknesses.”

Lake Mills will be tested Friday when it hosts Garner-Hayfield.

“The start of the year was tough,” Throne said. “If we haven’t turned the corner, we’re really close to it just by our defense and how we’ve been playing lately.”