By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
The Southeast of Saline boy’s basketball team will tip-off their Sterling Invitational run on Wednesday night when they take on the 0-8 Hutch Trinity Celtics.
SES has appeared in the SIT 14 times since its inception in 1973 but has never hoisted the first-place trophy.
With that being said, the #10 Trojans come into bracket play with the one seed and are the only ranked team in this year's tournament.
“As the one-seed, you’re set up in a good position and we want to make sure that we’re prepared to give ourselves a chance in each game,” SES head coach Bryson Flax said. “Sometimes you come into Sterling hoping to get two wins but we want three this year.”
Southeast’s first opponent is one they’ve seen a lot here in Sterling, the Trojans and Celtics have matched up here in each of the past two seasons, with Hutch Trinity getting the better of SES both times.
Despite the records indicating that SES should be heavily favored on Wednesday, the Trojans aren’t looking past anyone in the traditionally loaded tournament.
“You never want to overlook anybody even if you’re substantially better in a matchup,” Flax said. “If you let anyone hang around there’s always a chance that you could get beat. We respect this team and we’ll be prepared to play them like they’re 8-0.”
Hutch Trinity graduated quite a bit of talent from last season’s 15-8 team but did retain junior guard Blake Hammekke, whose brothers Kaleb and Lucas have won the last three “Most Inspirational Player” awards at the Invitational.
After a long break, SES will have to get back to playing their brand of methodical basketball to stay on the winner's side of the bracket.
“We have to pressure the ball tonight, they have some kids who can really play,” he said. “They’ve been a few bounces going their way from winning a few of these games and we have to sustain the runs when they make them.”
The winner of this contest will advance to play either 3-3 Hugoton or 2-4 Smoky Valley in the winner's bracket at 4:30 on Thursday while the losers will meet at 3:00.
Regardless of who advances, the road to a first SIT crown won’t be an easy one for SES
“The level of competition this year is pretty good again and there are a lot of teams that are a lot better than their records would reflect,” Flax said. “As always you’re going to have to win a few dogfights to get to the end.”
Tip-off between the Trojans and Celtics is scheduled for 7 pm. Tonight's game can be streamed live on the Salina Post.