By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
The Southeast of Saline boys basketball team will be looking for an early bounce back after dropping their season opener to Hesston by a final score of 53-44.
“Defensively we did some really good things,” SES head coach Bryson Flax said. “We made them take tougher shots than they wanted to and we were okay on the glass. We expected early offensive struggles but overall I thought we competed and we’re close to where we want to be early but we have to keep getting better.”
The Trojans will now turn their attention to the 0-1 Smoky Valley Vikings, who fell to Abilene 68-52 to open their season.
The Vikings had a trio of scorers in triple digits on Friday including junior Karson Pihl (19) and seniors Lukas Apel (13) and Haven Lysell (10) who accounted for 81% of the team’s points.
“All of these games in our first semester are going to be tough because every one of our opponents has multiple good scorers,” Flax said. “It’s not a matter of taking one guy out of the game, we have to be sound at all five positions but that really makes our team defense better.”
SES will run an early-season gauntlet loaded with good opponents and rivalry matchups, but the pressure should prepare the team for good things to come later in the year.
“I’m a fan of this schedule,” he said. “A majority of the teams we play before Christmas are going to make postseason runs and this gives us a gauge of where we’re at but it also highlights the things we need to correct.”
Against Smoky Valley, the Trojans will have to stay alert on offense to a myriad of looks that the Vikings like to throw at people defensively.
“They change defenses all the time to keep you guessing and they play at a different pace,” Flax said. “We’ll see 3-4 defenses and some press which muddies the game a little bit. We saw them this summer but they’re so much better with Pihl running the point.”
The aforementioned Karson Pihl led the Vikings in scoring and added four rebounds and three assists in the loss to Abilene.
On the SES side of things, the Trojans will hope to get more out of Luke Gebhardt and Nakari Morrical-Palmer, who combined for just ten points in the loss to Hesston.
“We need Luke to take more shots,” he said. “He’s one of those guys that if he’s not scoring we’re not scoring. We need more consistency offensively and we need Nakari to play more physically.”
Tip-off between the Trojans and Vikings is set for 7 pm at Smoky Valley High School following the girl's game.
As always, both games can be heard on KINA (910 AM or 107.5 FM) or streamed live on the Salina Post.