By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
The Southeast of Saline boys basketball team took care of business on Friday night, sweeping the Minneapolis Lions with a 62-22 victory to secure at least a portion of the NCAA League title.
With this win, the Trojans extend their longest winning streak of the year to seven, advancing to 14-3 overall and remaining a perfect 8-0 in league play.
Minneapolis drops to 4-13 and will look for their first win in league play in the final two weeks of the season.
The Trojans came firing out of the gates tonight using a 14-0 run to take a commanding early lead.
“We’ve been getting off to pretty decent starts here lately and tonight was no different,” SES head coach Bryson Flax said. “Minneapolis had some chances early that they didn’t convert on but defensively we were pretty good.”
Nakari Morrical-Palmer and Eli Sawyers were predictably good, turning in 15 and 10 point performances but the duo of big men were joined in double digits by a new career-high from Drake Augustine who dropped 12 points in the win.
“You love to see those threes go in for a guy like Drake,” Flax said. “We didn’t think they were going to guard him or Caden on the perimeter so it was really fantastic to see him hit some shots and hopefully gain a little confidence going forward.”
The Trojan pressure was in full effect again on Friday night, forcing 26 turnovers and allowing Minneapolis’ leading scorer to put up just six points.
Southeast will have to contend with a quick turnaround as they travel to Ellinwood on Monday to take on the state-ranked 16-1 Eagles in a rematch of a hard-fought victory from a year ago.
“This game will be challenging,” Flax said. “Everything runs through Dutton but what we can’t do is bail him out and send them to the line the way we did last year and we also have to rebound really well.”
SES will have just three more games to close out their regular season, taking on Ellinwood, Ellsworth, and Republic County.
With one more league win, the Trojans will claim their first outright NCAA title since 2007.