By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
Following a gauntlet to begin their season the Southeast of Saline boy’s basketball team will head into the new year at 4-2 ranked #9 in Class 3A.
Their first opponent of 2022 will come in the form of the 1-6 Minneapolis Lions, who will host the Trojans on Friday night.
“Our ability to compete amidst a pretty tough schedule was good to see,” SES assistant coach Trenton Douglas said. “We played four ranked teams on short practice while we figured out who we were and the kids really bought in and got after it.”
With head coach Bryson Flax unavailable for Friday night’s contest, SES will be under the direction of long-time assistant Trenton Douglas, making his first start as a head coach at the high school level.
“We want to make sure that we keep doing what Coach Flax has been working on and building with these guys throughout the season,” Douglas said. “We’ll have some rust to knock off early on but we need to stay focused and do what we need to do to be successful.”
While the Lions saw their fair share of struggles in 2021, they do boast a win over a top-three Solomon team from Class 1A, and their perimeter focus makes them dangerous when the team gets into a rhythm.
“They’re a very guard-oriented team and they shoot 30-40 threes in most of their games,” he said. “We can’t get beat off the dribble and we have to close out on shooters tonight.”
While SES has built quite the resume, the team is still looking to put all the pieces together for a complete team effort to cut out the lapses that have hurt them this year.
“We’re still looking for more consistency,” Douglas said. “Every night we’ve played well for about three quarters but we always have a lull and we want to put together 32 really good minutes.”
The league element of these NCAA games also adds a wrinkle as anything can happen with opponents that a team sees twice a year.
“Familiarity is a big part of these league games and we know they’re going to understand a lot of the things that we do well,” he said. “Our defensive intensity has to be good and we want to get out and run and use out defensive pressure to create offense.”
Tip-off between the Trojans and Lions is set for 7 pm following the girl’s game at 6.
As always, both games can be heard on KINA (910 AM or 107.5 FM) or streamed live on the Salina Post courtesy of Eagle Radio.