By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
After kicking off their season in style with a 58-33 win over the Burrton Chargers, the Solomon boys basketball team will turn their attention to a rivalry matchup with Bennington on their home floor.
Despite lacking size, the Gorillas cleaned up on the glass last Friday, which was a welcome sight to the Solomon faithful.
“For being an undersized team I thought our guards rebounded the ball really well,” Gorillas head coach Kyler Stein said. “We had Spencer Coup at 6-0 lead us with 17 rebounds and we filled that gap that we expected to be a problem for us. We also ran the floor well and our defense created a lot of offense for us.”
Despite the resounding victory to open their campaign, Coach Stein and company remain committed to constant improvement, picking apart the film to take the next step in game two.
“We struggled to get into the flow of our offense,” Stein said. “We ran the floor effectively but we struggled when we had to slow it down. We want to see more flow from our transition offense into our set offense and defensively we want to be more aggressive and have better rotations.”
All of this comes in the build-up of the annually anticipated battle between Solomon and Bennington, two schools separated by less than 20 miles.
“I like to keep the mindset that every game means the same but there’s definitely another dynamic with Bennington,” he said. “These guys all go play with each other at the Y in Salina and we’ve seen them this summer. They’re familiar and competitive with each other and you could tell in practice how much this rivalry game means to them.”
These two familiar foes split the season series in 2022-23 but will play just one game this regular season, raising the stakes in an already high-leverage matchup.
Like Solomon, Bennington, currently ranked as the #8 team in Class 2A, started their season off right with a 40-point blowout of Sylvan-Lucas.
“They return a lot of talent from last year,” Stein said. "Lawson is a problem at 6-7, he’s really smooth inside and outside and he’ll deflect a lot of shots. They also get Smith back after a transfer year and he adds another 6-4 element to their roster. They also have some strong guard play and scrappy role players off the bench, we’ll have our hands full.”
Despite entering this matchup at a size disadvantage, Solomon should have the edge in terms of speed and the ability to create chaos on defense, but will still need to crash the glass to take down a top-ten opponent.
“We have to be able to stay even with them and win that rebounding battle,” he said. “They got a lot of second-chance opportunities against Sylvan-Lucas so we can’t let their bigs get going inside, we need to force them to take a lot of outside shots.”
Tip-off between the Gorillas and Bulldogs is set for 7:30 pm at Solomon high school following the girl's game at 6:00.
For continuing coverage of Solomon hoops stay tuned to the Salina Post.