By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
After winning a pair of come-from-behind victories last week, the Southeast of Saline girl’s basketball team got a brief respite in a confident 52-35 win over Beloit, sweeping the orange Trojans on the season and bringing themselves one step closer to another league title.
With this win, the Lady Trojans move to 14-2 overall and 6-1 in league play while Beloit falls to 4-12.
“This was one of those games where I never felt like we were threatened to give up a big run,” SES head coach Shauna Smith said. “Every time we made a mistake we recovered well. We still have to figure out some things offensively but when you look at our numbers we were back to where we were.”
Knowing they were facing a potential sub-state opponent, Southeast wanted to send a message and wasted no time delivering the first punch, holding a 16-4 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Three different Lady Trojans notched double digits in this game led by Reagan Goetz (15), Maddie Harris (13), and Lexi Jacobson (12).
SES forced Beloit into 17 turnovers on the evening and dominated on the glass, turning offensive rebounds into second-chance points in droves.
“We did a good job on the offensive boards and we did a better job inside of getting our own misses,” Smith said. “That’s been our concentration in practice and it was good to see us continue to shoot over arms.”
With this victory, the Lady Trojans still control their own league destiny, needing to win their last three NCAA games to secure yet another league title.
The biggest obstacle to that goal will be this Friday, when Southeast travels to Minneapolis for a rematch against the only team to beat them in league play this season, and in the last several years.
“As soon as we left the court in that first Minneapolis game we were already ready to line up and play them again,” Smith said. “We’ve been preaching what they’re going to do to us ever since and we know the challenges they bring. We can’t take a play off for even a moment and it’s going to be a dogfight for 32 minutes.