By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
After a wild fourth-quarter comeback allowed them to storm back and defeat Sacred Heart on Tuesday, the Southeast of Saline girls’ basketball team found themselves down again, this time by nine with just 4:00 to play in Chapman.
Against all odds, the Lady Trojans pulled off the unthinkable, closing out the contest on a 10-1 run to squeak out of town with a 43-42 victory at the buzzer.
Southeast came out shooting well to begin this game, knocking down four trays in the opening quarter to take a 16-6 lead at the break.
From there, Chapman began using their size to take control of the game, quickly wrestling back the Lady Trojan advantage and trailing by just a point at the half.
“When we came into this game we knew they were going to be very athletic,” SES head coach Shauna Smith said. “We knew not to focus on their record. Their size makes them a tough matchup, and they brought it tonight.”
The two sides remained even through the third quarter, but the Lady Irish owned the first four minutes of the final frame, and held a 41-33 lead with just four minutes remaining.
Despite not scoring a single point in the first 32 minutes of the game, Maddie Harris took over down the stretch, scoring all seven of her points in quick succession to help SES chop down the Chapman lead.
With just 2.3 seconds to play, the hot-shooting Harris got a touch on the perimeter and fired away, burying the game-winner to send the Lady Trojans to 13-2 on the season.
“We know that if we’re down in a big game we can come back and win because we’ve done it before,” Smith said. “We’ve learned a lot from these games. There are teams that never experience those things that tend to struggle, and we’re better for it.”
Two Lady Trojans notched double figures before the night was through, with Reagan Goetz dropping 11 and Brielle Ptacek tacking on ten.
Chapman's dynamic duo in the paint also scored double digits, with Ava Locke leading all scorers with 14 points, while Maya Kirkpatrick posted 12 in the loss.
Next up, Southeast of Saline will return home looking to sweep Beloit, in the second edition of this year’s Trojan War.