By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
The Southeast of Saline boys basketball team will tip off their sub-state run with a quarterfinal matchup against a familiar foe in 5-15 Minneapolis.
The Trojans soundly defeated the Lions twice this season by final scores of 52-25 and 62-22 en route to a perfect 10-0 league sweep this year.
“I think we’ve been balanced against Minneapolis and we’ve handled their zone well,” SES head coach Bryson Flax said. “We’ve gotten the ball into the teeth through the high post well and we have to continue to get paint touches against them.”
For the Trojans, the goal remains to secure a ticket to the state tournament, but Southeast knows that the three-game slate to get there will be anything but easy.
“Part of me feels like the end goal has been to get to Hutch and anything short of that would be a disappointment for us, but along the way there are a lot of things that stand in your way with 64 teams fighting for eight punched tickets,” Flax said. “We’ve grown a lot and as a team and we’re going to give ourselves a chance to get there.”
SES will enter sub-state on the best run of their season, carrying all the momentum of a ten-game win streak and their first league title since 2007 into the playoffs.
“I’m definitely happy with how far the guys have developed this year,” he said. “We had some guys that we weren’t 100% sure about going in but Jake Gebhardt, Kayson Lilley, and Caden Isaacson have really stepped up for us and our top six or seven guys have gotten even better.”
While SES should be considered heavy favorites on Monday against a Lions team that they handled by a combined 67 points this season, the Trojans are remaining wary of anyone on the right night.
“Normally it’s difficult to beat a team three times, especially a league opponent,” Flax said. “They know what we’re going to do and the wild card is that they have absolutely nothing to lose. We’re not overlooking anybody and we’re preparing like we would any other game because if you don’t show up for eight minutes your season could be done.”
Tip-off between the Trojans and Lions is set for 7 pm and will be the final boys game of the year played at Southeast of Saline High School.
The winner of this game will advance to the sub-state semis to take on either 10-10 Smoky Valley or 8-12 Ellsworth.
As always, the game can be heard on KINA (910 AM or 107.5 FM) courtesy of Bennington State Bank.