By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
The Southeast of Saline boy’s basketball team handled their business against the Chapman Fighting Irish in a 73-25 blowout victory.
With this win, the Trojans advance to 12-3 and extend their winning streak to five while Chapman falls to 0-16 on the year.
While this game was a mismatch on paper, Southeast did an excellent job of playing unselfish basketball, getting everyone involved throughout a big offensive night.
“We were able to exploit some openings and when you share the ball the way we did this evening everyone is involved,” SES head coach Bryson Flax said.
The Trojans were led by a trio of double-digit scorers with Drake Augustine joining Eli Sawyers and Nakari Morrical-Palmer with 11 points.
“Drake has had a couple of opportunities that he’s missed but he did a really nice job of absorbing some contact tonight,” Flax said. “Things for him start on the defensive end, he brings us so much energy on that side and it’s hard for other teams to prepare for that in practice.”
Southeast was also able to get some flashy plays in transition with Eli Sawyers and Nakari Morrical-Palmer putting on a dunk contest in the middle of the game.
“If you come watch our practices you would think Nakari dunks every other possession,” he said. “It was a lot of fun to see him and Eli play above the rim tonight.”
SES got off to a great start in this game, leading 13-0 off the starting line and holding a 29-point lead at the half.
The Trojan defense was also in grand form tonight, refusing to allow a single player for Chapman to score more than 7 points and holding them to a single made field goal between the second and fourth quarter.
“Our effort has to be good and consistent no matter the skill set or record of our opponent,” Flax said. “Even with the young guys at the end we had kids diving on the floor for balls and that energy was good to see, we have to keep taking steps forward in that regard.”
The Trojans will be back in action next week with a road trip to Beloit on Tuesday and a chance to capture a first league title since 2007 with an additional win over Minneapolis on Friday.
“We didn’t play bad in Beloit last year but they’re a sub-state opponent and we’re sitting 1-2 right now so we want to put ourselves in the best position possible,” he said. “They’re young and we shell shocked them a little bit in that first game but they’ve gotten a lot of experience since then so we have to really handle our business.”