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Ramstein’s Dillon Wadsack drives to the basket around Lakenheath defenders, from left, Zach Randolph, Brinsley Walker and Emmanual Toots during the Royals’ 69-31 home victory on Jan. 29.

Ramstein’s Dillon Wadsack drives to the basket around Lakenheath defenders, from left, Zach Randolph, Brinsley Walker and Emmanual Toots during the Royals’ 69-31 home victory on Jan. 29. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany - For Ramstein All-Europe senior guard Dillon Wadsack, going home to Texas this fall will mean leaving his home at Ramstein, where’s he’s spent the last four years in the same backcourt with fellow All-European Michael Wallace.

"We’ve been together all four years," Wadsack said Tuesday of his high-school association with Wallace, almost unheard of in the frequent population changes of DODDS schools. "Even in eighth grade, I knew about him, even though he went to Ramstein Middle School and I went to Landstuhl."

Wallace and Wadsack, who combined to help lift Ramstein to the European Division I championship last February, both swear by their shared experience.

To Wallace, being together on the floor that long almost erases the fact that an ocean separates the two from the birthplace of basketball.

"It’s kind of like stateside," Wallace said. "You play with the same guys from grade school, junior high on."

For his part, Wallace is considering testing his considerable athletic skills this fall by walking on in football at national champion Alabama, where he’s already been admitted.

"Michael always said football is his game," Wadsack said of Ramstein’s All-Europe quarterback, "and basketball is mine."

For now, though, the plan is for both to give all they have on the basketball court, just as they’ve done the past four years.

"It’s been great," Wadsack said shortly before he burned Wiesbaden for 34 points in his last home game at Ramstein, an 83-43 romp Tuesday night. "The chemistry is fantastic. We know where each of us is going to be and what we’re going to do."

Echoed Wallace, "There’s a lot of trust between us. It’s less stressful on the court."

If not in practice. Each has benefited from playing every day against as good a player as he’ll face all season.

"We’re both really competitive," Wadsack said. "We get after it in practice."

Wadsack, however, gets after it long before practice, too.

"Coach (Andrew O’Connor) and I are in the gym every morning at 6 a.m., shooting free throws and jumpers," he said. "I always like to put in extra time, even when some kids are sleeping. I always want to get better."

A 16.7-points-per-game scorer last season, Wadsack is averaging 25 points this year. Much of that gain has come from dawn-patrol free-throw practice which has helped convert him from a 50-percent to an 85-percent shooter.

"Last year, he really wasn’t a very good free-throw shooter," O’Connor said. "He was shooting two-handed. We converted him to a one-hand shot. To his credit, he hasn’t gone back to his old form since he was shown the new way."

Much to the displeasure of archrival Heidelberg, for one.

"A couple of weeks ago we played a road game at Heidelberg," Wadsack said. "I was 12-for-12 from the line in the fourth quarter and 14 of 15 for the game. We won 67-59."

Expect Wadsack, who lived in San Antonio for nine years, to keep working hard as he looks forward to college classes and basketball at Texas State University.

"My goal has always been to play Division I basketball," Wadsack said. "Since sixth or seventh grade, I’ve been shooting all day long."

Before he goes, there is one more basketball challenge in Europe: next week’s Division I championship to be decided next week in Mannheim.

"For me and Dillon, it’s our last big game," Wallace said. "We want to go out with a bang."

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