By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post
The Southeast of Saline basketball teams traveled to Abilene on Tuesday to square off with the Cowboys and Cowgirls.
On the day, the four teams split the two games, with Southeast’s girls winning 47-42, and Abilene’s boys dominating 71-43.
Girls: SE of Saline 47, Abilene 42
Southeast did not start their game with Abilene well on the girls side, conceding a huge run near the end of the second quarter and trailing 28-9 going into the halftime locker room.
From there, challenges were issued and the call was answered, as the Lady Trojans battled back to erase the 19-point deficit in the third quarter.
“At halftime, we had a long talk about digging deep and finding some energy,” SES head coach Shauna Smith said. “I thought we were flat for the first 16 minutes, and I wasn’t sure anything went our way, but we made our free throws at the end, and we’re all about gutting out late games.”
The Lady Trojans kept their foot on the gas and attacked the basket, knocking down nine of their ten fourth-quarter free throws to close out a 47-42 win.
“We talked about the physicality of this game and matching them with some leadership in that,” Smith said. “We did some things right in the second half and we got some balls to go in the bucket for us down the stretch.”
Southeast was led in scoring by their freshman duo of Reese Heinrich (14) and Kyiah Samuelson (9), also getting six points apiece from Suttyn Douglas, Regan Duran, Aba Pearson and Annabelle Villalaz.
In the loss, Abilene got 12 points from Tessa Herrman, who scored nine in the first half but was held to just three in the second.
SES moves to 1-1 while Abilene falls to 0-2 on the young season.
Boys: SE of Saline 43, Abilene 71
On the boy’s side, Abilene led from the jump and never looked back, forcing 17 turnovers in a dominant home rout.
Rebounding proved to be the Trojan’s downfall, as the Cowboys crashed the boards hard, earning bonus possessions and limiting Southeast’s chances on offense.
“We can’t keep anybody off the glass and we have 3-4 guys looking at the shot instead of blocking out,” SES head coach Francis Flax said. “We were sloppy with the basketball, they were overplaying the passing lanes and we don’t know yet what a ball fake is. We’re going to hang in there and we went from 34 to 41, maybe we’ll get to 50 next game.”
It was an electric night for Abilene’s Ian Crump, who hit three three pointers as part of a 21-point effort.
Crump was backed up by Jackson Green (14) Tyler Holloway (11) and Taygen Funston (10), who accounted for four of the Cowboy’s nine scorers on the day.
Southeast also got into foul trouble, sending the Cowboys to the line 30 times where they connected on 23 tries.
“Most of the time we’re getting a good look but I tell the guys in practice to take the guys to the basket,” Flax said. “I didn’t love some of the offensive foul calls but that didn’t win or lose the game for us. Ultimately we can’t score early and that’s a big issue.”
Owen Bailey led the charge with 17 points in the losing effort.
With this result the Cowboys roll to 2-0 while SES falls to 0-2.
Things won’t get any easier for SES, who will face four state-ranked opponents to start their season.
Both SES teams will be back in action on Friday when they return home to host the rival Trojans of Beloit.