By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
The Solomon girls basketball team has gotten off to a slow, but improved start to their 2020-21 season, already doubling their win total from last year with a month of the regular season left to play.
The Lady Gorillas began their season 3-3, but fell in their next five games before picking up a big win over Wichita Classical last week.
“My biggest takeaway thus far is that when we protect the ball as a team and rebound we have a chance to be competitive on any given night,” Solomon head coach Zach Douglas said. “We just have to focus on those two factors of the game.”
Solomon, like many other teams, has had a lot to overcome this season, with much uncertainty hanging over the season, and every game feeling like a blessing.
“I'm proud of this team for taking on the challenge of playing in the middle of a pandemic,” Douglas said. “They've taken all of the adjustments, changes and reschedules in stride and haven't complained about them.”
The Gorillas have had a good core of veteran talent to work with this season, with seniors Emma Seidl and Libby Ledet leading a starting five that has already looked much improved from a season ago.
Among the starting five Libby Ledet has emerged as a jack-of-all trades, who has been asked to step into a number of roles this season, and has excelled in all of them thus far.
“The leadership of Libby Ledet has pleasantly surprised me this year,” he said. “Her natural position has been as a forward and inside player but she has been asked to step in to play point guard and guard the other team’s best player for 20+ minutes a game all while never coming out and playing 32 total minutes a game. Her commitment to improving herself as a player since last season has had a tremendous effect on this team.”
In addition to all of the other things that Ledet does on the perimeter, she has also led the team in rebounds grabbing eight boards per game.
For Solomon to find more wins this season, their ability to handle the press from some of the best defenses in their league will be crucial as we head into the final month of the regular season.
“We need to continue working on our ability to handle pressure and playing within ourselves when the pressure comes,” he said.
The remaining road for Solomon will not be an easy one, with matchups against opponents like 9-3 Little River, 7-5 Rural Vista and 6-3 Bennington still to come.
“Our goal is to win a couple games down the stretch to position ourselves in the middle of the pack in our sub-state.” Douglas said. “With that goal in mind we'd like to win a first round game at sub-state and then see where the rest of the tournament takes us. We want to focus on one game at a time and control what we can control.”
Solomon will be back in action on Tuesday when they travel to 9-3 Little River.