By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post
The Southeast of Saline basketball teams were back on the road this Friday as they made the short trip to Minneapolis to tangle with the Lions and Lady Lions
SES battled but Minneapolis would take the girl’s game 47-35 but the Trojans would rout the Lions on the boy’s side 64-38.
Girls: SE of Saline 35, Minneapolis 47
Southeast battled hard to overcome a dismal first quarter, but a 14-5 start for the Lady Lions proved to be too much to overcome as SES dropped just their second game in conference play.
The Lady Trojans cut the lead to seven at halftime but from there, Minneapolis would extend the lead back to 12 and hold on to win by the same margin.
Both teams forced turnovers in bunches, with each side surrendering the ball 17 times before the final whistle.
Baylee Randall-Hurt and Maci McClure each had big nights for Minneapolis, contributing 17 and 14 points respectively.
On the Southeast side Kyiah Samuelson was the only player in double figures, with 12 points, Aba Pearson (8) was the only other Lady Trojan north of five.
With this result SES falls to 13-5 on the year and 8-2 in league play while the Lady Lions improve to 10-6 and 5-4 respectively.
Boys: SE of Saline 64, Minneapolis 38
The boy’s game was rarely in doubt as the Trojans took an 18-12 lead to open the game and steadily built it from there, holding a nine-point advantage at the half and a 13-point edge at the end of the third.
If there were any lingering doubts, they were quickly extinguished in the closing quarter as Southeast exploded, outscoring the Lions 21-8 down the home stretch of this game.
While there were plenty of great SES buckets in this game, none were better than Tiernan Ptacek’s buzzer-beating double-clutch half-court shot to end the first quarter, which sent the traveling Southeast contingent into raptures.
Ball security played a big role in this win for Southeast, who forced 19 turnovers by the final buzzer while surrendering just six turnovers themselves.
Gannon Jacobson (21) led the way for the Trojans on a night where seven different players scored, backed up by Tiernan Ptacek (13), Isaiah Kejr (9), Owen Bailey (8), and Sam Knopf (8).
Owen Just led the Lions in the losing effort but the Trojans made life difficult for the Minneapolis star, holding him to just ten points, and allowing him to score just once in the whole second half.
With this result, SES improves to 9-9 overall and 6-4 in league play while Minneapolis slides to 4-12 and 3-7, respectively.