By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
The Southeast of Saline boys basketball team will continue their playoff run at the 3A state tournament this week with a 4 pm Wednesday quarterfinal against the Osage City Indians.
The Trojans reached the state tournament for the first time since 2017 with three big wins, each a bit more confident than the last, to extend their winning streak to 13 coming into bracket play.
“I was happy with how the guys played at sub-state,” SES head coach Bryson Flax said. “Minneapolis did what they had to do to stay in the game but we took care of them, played excellent defense against Smoky Valley and adjusted well to wear down Council Grove in the championship game.”
On the other side of the matchup, Osage City punched their ticket to state with wins over West Franklin, Heritage Christian Academy, and Pleasent Ridge to move to 20-3 overall on the season.
For Southeast, the goal all season was to make it to this very game, but now that the Trojans have achieved that, SES has decided to move the goalposts.
“I’m so proud of the guys,” Flax said. “We know that if you can get to Hutch anything can happen. We’re happy to be here and we’re happy to be one of eight but we’d be doing ourselves a disservice if we didn’t set new goals now that we’ve made it here.”
The Trojans will have their hands full with the same Osage City program that ended their most recent tournament run back in 2017, but with a new coach and no returning players from that team, it will be business as usual for Southeast on Wednesday.
The Indian's offense runs through the paint, with two versatile bigs in Landon Boss and Kaden Kirkpatrick causing opposing defenses fits this year.
“The Boss kid is really good,” Flax said. “He’s deceptively quick and he can beat you off the dribble, he can step out and shoot the three too. Kirkpatrick is a load to handle inside and out and their guards do what they need to do on both sides to get those guys in good positions.”
Southeast will have to keep that duo off the glass tonight to eliminate second chance looks and to control the tempo in transition.
“We’re going to have to rebound at a high level,” he said. they get a majority of their shots off second-chance looks. We can’t let them get comfortable in their offense because they’ll run that until they get really good looks so we’ll have to be locked in.”
Whatever happens tonight, it’s worth noting that this year’s Trojan team has posted a 20-win season, defeated several state-ranked opponents, and punched the first ticket to state in over a decade with a roster that doesn’t feature a single senior.
“The production hasn’t surprised me but I have been surprised by the level of maturity and focus we’ve had from a group,” Flax said. “They’ve bought into what we’re doing and we’ve had multiple guys step up and hold each other accountable.”
While it may appear that SES is playing with house money, the Trojans are laser-focused and truly believe that if they play up to their potential, it could be them hoisting the trophy on Saturday.
“I think these guys really believe that they can get this done,” he said. “We competed with some tough teams that are here earlier in the season and we’re battle-tested from those games with Hesston, Hillsboro, Hugoton, and Ellinwood. Our guys believe in themselves but we know that everybody is good here and our focus is on getting one tonight and going from there.”
Tip-off between the Trojans and Indians is set for 4 pm at the Hutchison Sports Arena with the winner advancing to play the 1-seed in Royal Valley (22-1) or the 8-seed in Girard (16-5) on Friday at 2:00.
Today's game can be heard on KINA (910 AM or 107.5 FM) or you can tune in HERE.
For continuing coverage of the Trojans run at state stay tuned to the Salina Post.