By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
The Central Lady Mustangs have punched their ticket to the state tournament and will begin their run at the 5A title today with a home game against the 8-14 Topeka-Seaman Lady Vikings.
While in a normal season all of these games would be played at Emporia, covid-concerns have dictated that unseeded quarterfinal matchups across the state will be hosted by the team with the better record, granting Central one last game at home.
The Mustangs made it through their bracket as the one-seed with a 52-29 in over Hays and a narrow 48-45 victory against cross-town rival Salina South.
“It was a great game,” Central head coach Chris Fear said. “South after a tough start was really playing well at the end of the season and they were fantastic the other night. To beat them in the final to earn a chance to go play in the state tournament is really special and it’s a night that I don’t think any of us will forget for a very long time.”
The Lady Vikes came out of a bracket featuring just one team with a winning record as the two-seed, knocking off Topeka West 60-33 before stunning eighth-ranked Emporia with a 37-27 upset win.
“It’s huge that we get to play at home,” Fear said. “That’s one of the other perks of having a really good regular season and we honestly thought we would have a 17 win Emporia team instead. Seaman is obviously capable but they’ve struggled at times this year. We just have to go play our game regardless of our opponent.”
The Vikings run a good majority of their offense through a scoring duo of Taylin Stallbaumer and Riley Cowan, and will look to slow down the tempo against a high powered Central offense.
“They want to control the tempo and keep the game as low scoring as they can get it,” he said. “Obviously we’d like to go the other way with a lot of possessions but they’re probably going to take time to find really good shots.”
In addition to the speed of the game, the Lady Stangs will have to be careful with how aggressively they play the post against a very low post centric Seaman team.
“I think one of the big things for us tonight will be to stay out of foul trouble,” Fear said. “They do throw it to the post a little bit more than some teams we’ve played this year and foul trouble inside for us would be really damaging so that has to be our focus tonight.”
Tip off is scheduled for 6pm tonight at Salina Central High School with the winner advancing to the seeded semi-final on Thursday.
Stay tuned to the Salina Post for continuing coverage of the Lady Mustangs state tournament run.