By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
With a 66-30 win over Ellinwood on Monday evening, the Southeast of Saline girl’s basketball team has officially found its footing on offense, and looks like a force to be reckoned with down the home stretch.
Another win marks the eighth in a row for the Lady Trojans, bringing their overall record to 16-2 while the Lady Eagles fall to 9-9.
This 66-point outburst is a new high watermark for Southeast, and the Lady Trojans have now scored 50 or more in each of their last three games after doing so just three times in their first 15 matchups.
“I thought we did a good job of having everyone contribute for us and that’s who we are,” SES head coach Shauna Smith said. “We’re not a one-person team. We had a lot of threes and against their zone, we did what we needed to do.”
Even by their own standards, Southeast’s scoring spread was immaculate on Monday, with three different players scoring 15 or more.
Reagan Goetz led the way, following her career-high performance with another 19 points, with Lexi Jacobson (16) and Brielle Ptacek (15) not far behind.
In addition to that big trio in this game, SES had seven different players in the scoring column, and shared the ball exceptionally well.
“If the shots don’t come for us right away we know we can get any look we want with a few more passes,” Smith said. “Things started opening up for us when we got out on the run and got some inside shots to go, we did a really nice job of moving the ball tonight.”
For as good as the Lady Trojans were offensively, defensively, they accomplished something much more difficult, holding Brittany Simpson, who averages 20 points on any given night, to just five points in the first three quarters and ten overall.
“Avery does a good job and everyone helped on Simpson,” she said. “They got some points late but there were only a few times in the first half where she really hurt us.”
SES also dominated in the turnover margin, forcing the Eagles to cough the ball up 22 times while committing just seven themselves.
“Last year nothing went our way in this game but we did a good job of forcing turnovers in our half-court trap and getting deflections in our zone,” Smith said.
The Lady Trojans now face a quick turnaround as game two of a back-to-back will see them travel to Ellsworth on Tuesday night.