By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
The Solomon boys basketball team will play for a third-place finish at the state tournament on Saturday at noon against Macksville in Dodge City.
The Gorillas fell to South Gray 79-46 on Friday while the Mustangs dropped their semifinal matchup with Olpe 68-38.
“We wanted to be in the other game but we have an opportunity to finish our season with a win and only two teams in each class get to do that each year,” Solomon head coach Kyler Stein said. “We can be one of those teams, we can bring some hardware back home and that’s our motivation today.”
While the Gorillas have already achieved the best finish in school history, Solomon can raise that watermark with a win today if they can lock in for one final game at state.
“I think right now our energy level is up in the air,” Stein said. “We’ll get them ready before the game and this morning they seemed like they were ready to go. We know we didn’t play our best game on a big stage last night and they want to prove that they’re better than that.”
Like Solomon, the Mustangs have relied on hitting their opponents from all over the floor, with a rock-solid group of starters capable of scoring at all three levels.
“Macksville has some really nice guards but they’re a streaky shooting team,” he said. “They’ve got some good bigs as well and some dangerous wings. They’re a very active defensive team and we’ll have to take care of the basketball.”
Winning the turnover battle will be paramount for a Gorillas team that coughed the ball up more last night than in any other game all season, but a stingy Solomon defense is more than capable of wreaking havoc on the Mustangs this afternoon.
“We’re going to have to rebound well,” Stein said. “Their guards crash the boards really well and we’re going to have to take care of the basketball after a season-high in turnovers. We can’t give them looks and we need to get out in transition.”
Tip-off between the Gorillas and Mustangs is set for noon in Dodge City.
For continuing coverage of Solomon at state stay tuned to the Salina Post