By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post
The Southeast of Saline basketball teams opened the gauntlet of their home stretch on Tuesday night as they travelled to Beloit for the second installment of this year’s Trojan War.
The Lady Trojans took one more step towards another league title with a 60-56 victory while the boys dropped a heartbreaker in double overtime 65-62
Girls: SE of Saline 60, Beloit 56
The girl’s game was one of the best battles in the state on Tuesady with neither team gaining a true foothold until the closing seconds of the fourth quarter.
Beloit led by two at the end of the first frame but Southeast battled back to take a one-point lead into the locker room, and a two-point lead into the fourth.
From there, SES heated things up from beyond the arc, knocking down three fourth-quarter three-pointers and handling their business at the free-throw line to pull away for a 60-56 victory.
Aba Pearson had a monster night with 20 points, and got plenty of support from Kyiah Samuelson who added 17 more in the win.
Four different Beloit Lady Trojans would finish the evening in double figures led by Addison Budke (13) McKenna Channel (13) Samantha Thompson (12) and Cassandra Thompson (12) but it wasn’t enough to overcome Southeast’s dynamic duo.
With this result SES improves to 13-4 overall and 8-1 in league play while Beloit drops to 8-8 on the season and 5-4 in NCAA action.
Boys: SE of Saline 62, Beloit 65
On the boy’s side, Southeast of Saline showed off how much they had grown since an 81-68 drubbing at the hands of Beloit back in December, taking the orange and black all the way to double overtime.
Beloit’s lead was steady, but never insurmountable as they led by two after one, one at half, and four at the end of the third quarter.
Gannon Jacobson took over the fourth quarter for SES, allowing the Trojans to get back into the game at the line with five clutch fourth-quarter free throws in as many attempts.
An Eli Johnson bucket at the rim tied the game at 52 all with half a minute to go and a missed three by Grady Gebhardt sent the game to the first of two overtimes.
Southeast was able to push their lead to two but again Johnson tied the game with 2:00 to play in OT, and that would be the last bucket of the additional period as both teams went cold from the floor, sending the game to a second overtime.
Perhaps spurred by those two clutch buckets, Johnson went off in overtime, scoring six of Beloit’s eight points down the stretch.
Gannon Jacobson added five points of his own but he would be the only member of the purple and white to score in double overtime as Beloit held on to win 65-62.
Jacobson (26) and Sam Knopf (15) led the way for Southeast in the loss while Johnson (23) Charlie Burke (13) and Brody Litton (11) pushed Beloit over the finish line.
With this result SES drops to 8-9 on the year and 5-4 in league play while Beloit improves to 12-4 and 8-1 respectively.
Both Southeast teams will be back in action on Friday when they travel to Minneapolis for a date with the Lions and Lady Lions.