By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
With an opportunity to control their own league destiny on the line on Friday night the Southeast of Saline girl’s basketball team delivered, knocking off Ellsworth 48-32 to move to 4-1 in NCAA play.
The Lady Trojans, now 11-2 on the season, can still win another league title outright if the team can sweep their final five NCAA contests, including one with Sacred Heart on Tuesday.
The Southeast defense was on full display early in this game, as the Lady Trojans held the Bearcats to just six first-quarter points and just 15 before the intermission.
“I thought we suffocated them in the first half and defensively we did a very good job,” SES head coach Shauna Smith said. “We almost overplayed some possessions but we made them work for every shot in that first half.”
Despite lacking in size all season long, the Lady Trojans have found ways to keep teams off balance with their quickness, and disruptive defense, forcing double-digit turnovers in their last two games while turning the ball over in the single digits in both.
“There are pros and cons to everything, we’re undersized but I’d prefer our situation to having too many posts,” Smith said. “We work people so hard and make them work to move the ball around and we’re not turning the ball over but we still need to get better around the goal on offense.”
Offensively, SES was led in this game by Reagan Goetz who tacked on 11 points, followed by Abigail Pearson (9), Maddie Harris (8), Brielle Ptacek (7), and Lexi Jacobson (6).
Southeast will turn their attention to another league tilt on Tuesday as the Lady Trojans prepare to host Sacred Heart, looking for a season sweep of the Lady Knights on their home floor.
“We’re not overlooking Sacred Heart by any means,” Smith said. “They’ll get up for that rivalry game but we have to control the tempo in that game. They want to play even faster than we do and we’ve grown as a defensive team since then.”