By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
The Southeast of Saline Trojans battled late but couldn’t overcome a rough second quarter, falling to the Hugoton Eagles 64-53 in the semi-final of the Sterling Invitational.
The Eagles outscored SES 20-6 in the second and 31-14 in the middle quarters to pull away and never look back.
“A lot of our issues were with the energy that we played with,” SES head coach Bryson Flax said. “We didn’t come out with a lot and in the second quarter and we were missing looks around the rim. When you can’t score sometimes things just spiral.”
Luke Gebhardt put up a very good showing in the loss, leading all scorers with 20 points.
The top-two points contributors were both from SES, as Nakari Morrical-Palmer added 17 more, but just five Trojans found the scorebook while Hugoton had four players in double-digits alone.
Southeast also struggled mightily from beyond the arc early, shooting a dismal 0/8 in the first half.
The bracket final will be played on Friday at 7:30 featuring Hugoton and the hosts in Sterling.
SES meanwhile, will turn their attention to the third-place game against 4-7 Kingman, who sent Scott City to the losers bracket before falling to Sterling on Thursday.
For coverage of both tournament finals stay tuned to the Salina Post.