By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post
The Southeast of Saline basketball teams finished off their week in style, sweeping Minneapolis to cap off their back-to-back a perfect 4-0.
Girls Game: SE of Saline 42, Minneapolis 40
The Lady Trojans built themselves a sizable early lead, and would need every bit of it to stave off a late Lady Lion run.
Southeast led by as many as 11 points at the half, and maintained a nine-point lead going into the fourth, but added just two fourth-quarter points, holding on for dear life to the 42-40 win.
“I thought we came out really well,” SES head coach Shauna Smith said. “We defended the heck out of them for 32 minutes. We let up a couple of threes early but we fixed that and got out on the perimeter a little harder.”
Most of Minneapolis’ fourth-quarter damage was done at the free-throw line, where Raelyn Robinson went a perfect 6-6 at the stripe, supplementing the lone field goal make by Josi Schrader.
Maci McClure, who did not score in the fourth quarter, would go on to lead all scorers with 12 points for Minneapolis.
On the other side of the matchup, seven different Lady Trojans entered the scoring column, led by Lexi Jacobson (11), and Maddie Harris (9).
Southeast will have two days off before opening another back-to-back at Ellinwood on Monday.
Boys Game: SE of Saline 63, Minneapolis 25
On the boy’s side of things, Southeast took care of business from the jump, outscoring the Lions 24-8 in the second quarter to hold a massive 41-18 lead and never looking back.
From there, defense was the name of the game, as the Trojans held a second-straight opponent under 35 points on the night.
“They were down a guy that they run a lot of sets through so they had to figure some things out but I thought we did a good job once we took away the dribble-drive,” SES head coach Bryson Flax said. “Our offense flows better when we can get out in transition and I was proud of the guys tonight.”
With Owen Just MIA, the Lions struggled to put the pieces together offensively, getting 11 from Zach Nelson, and 14 from the rest of the team combined.
Meanwhile for Southeast, nine different Trojans notched at least one bucket, anchored by big nights off the bench for Brenton Leeds (15) and Isaiah Kejr (12).
The Trojans return to the floor on Monday when they travel to Ellinwood for the first of a new back-to-back.