By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
After handling their business against Republic County on Tuesday in a 47-29 victory, the Southeast of Saline girl’s basketball team will make their long-awaited return to the Purple Palace to host Ellsworth on Friday night.
The Lady Trojans come into their first home game in over 20 days ranked #10 in Class 3A, with a record of 10-2 (3-1 in league), while the Lady Bearcats enter at 8-5.
Despite a slow start on Tuesday, Southeast was able to cruise to yet another NCAA win as their defense led the way in yet another shutdown effort.
“I thought defensively we played really well and did some really good things but we need to see the ball go through the bucket,” SES head coach Shauna Smith said. “We’re in a bit of a shooting slump but we have some really good shooters on our team and that’s going to come back to us.”
While the team has struggled a bit on the offensive end in recent games, the stellar play of Lexi Jacobson has made up for it in a big way, with double-digit performances becoming the norm.
“Lexi has been doing a good job of turning defense into offense,” Smith said. “She’s playing at a high level on the inside. She’s been attacking the basket and playing with confidence.”
While their path to another consecutive league title will not be as simple as it has been in years past, this game could represent a major step in the right direction against an Ellsworth team still very much in the mix.
“Ellsworth, like everyone in the league, is much improved this year,” She said. “They’re pretty young and they play ten deep including some freshmen but they’re going to play some zone on us and we have to put the ball in the bucket. They’re a lot better offensively than they’ve been, we have to play smart and do what we know how to do.”
The Lady Bearcats are the only team in league play to defeat Minneapolis, giving SES a chance to take the NCAA outright if they can win out in their six remaining league games.
To start that run on Friday night, the Lady Trojans will need to make the Bearcats uncomfortable, and find ways to push the pace against a less experienced Ellsworth bunch.
“We need to get up and down the court the way we like to do and get some easy layups,” Smith said. “They got into trouble when they faced speed against Sacred Heart so we want to turn up the pace under control.”
Southeast will also look to re-establish some confidence from beyond the arc, where the new year has not been kind to a Lady Trojan team with an arsenal of capable shooters.
“We need to be able to score from the outside,” she said. “We were averaging six threes before Christmas and now we’re down to 2-3. We have 4-5 people who can shoot that shot and when we get back to doing that it really opens up our offense.”
Tip-off between the Lady Trojans and Bearcats is set for 6:30 at Southeast of Saline High School and as always the game can be heard on KINA (910 AM or 107.5 FM) or streamed with live audio and video on the Salina Post.