By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post
The Southeast of Saline basketball teams started the new year off right on Friday, sweeping Minneapolis on the road with a pair of wins over the Lions and Lady Lions.
Girls Game: SE of Saline 42, Minneapolis 37
On their own home floor and with an undefeated record, many favored the white-hot Lady Lions in this game, but Southeast pulled away in the middle quarters and never looked back, holding on to hand Minneapolis their first loss of the season.
With this result, the Lady Trojans take over first place in the NCAA (5-2, 3-0), while Minneapolis slides to second (7-1, 3-1).
Minneapolis also held the advantage of having played a game in 2024 already, while the last matchup for Southeast was held before the break, but the Lady Trojans found their rhythm right out of the gate and were able to match pace with one of the league’s best.
“I didn’t notice any rust and honestly, I forgot that this was our first game back,” SES head coach Shauna Smith said. “Our five starters played a majority of the minutes tonight and we couldn’t afford to sub much but that’s just how the game went.”
Those five starters would be the only Lady Trojans in the scoring column, but it was all Southeast needed, led by a masterclass for Lexi Jacobson, who ended her evening with 19 points.
In the losing effort, Maci McClure and Raelyn Robinson led the way for the Lady Lions with 10 and 8 respectively, but the SES defense tightened the screws when it needed to, holding Minne to just five second-quarter points and forcing 20 turnovers.
“We always tell the kids sometimes the offense doesn’t come but your defense always travels with you,” Smith said. “We know we can thrive on our defense and we’re capable of putting ourselves in good scoring positions on offense too.”
Boys Game: SE of Saline 67, Minneapolis 32
The boy’s game would also go down as a triumph for Southeast of Saline, who jumped out to a ten-point lead after the first quarter and never looked back in a 35-point blowout.
The Trojans collect their first league win (3-4, 1-2), while the Lions tumble further down the NCAA standings (1-7, 1-3).
After finally getting a chance to rest several players on the heels of a long football season, Southeast came out with a renewed energy, and immediately posted a new high watermark in scoring with 67 points
“We did some productive things offensively,” SES head coach Bryson Flax said. “I thought we went to the rim with purpose and we were able to hit a couple of shots but for us, it starts at the defensive end, we get better offensively as we get better defensively and that boosted our confidence a ton.”
That Trojan defense completely held in check Lions standout Owen Just, who scored just four points on four free throws all night.
“We had a good plan against Just and executed it pretty well,” Flax said. “He’s capable and we’ve seen him keep them in games so we wanted to make it difficult for him and keep the others off the glass.”
Southeast was led by a trio of double-digit scorers in Gannon Jacobson (17), Danny Kejr (10), and Owen Bailey (10).
Meanwhile, in lieu of Just, the Lions got most of their scoring from Dalton Krueger (10), and Ryan Parks (9).
Both teams will return to the floor to face Clay Center on Tuesday, before taking the rest of the week off ahead of the Sterling Tournament the following week.