By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
With the final month of their 2022-23 season on the horizon, the Solomon boy’s basketball team faces a challenging home stretch, as the Gorillas look to overcome adversity, and strengthen their position ahead of sub-state in late February.
Things started well for Solomon, who began their campaign at 6-3, thanks in no small part to the stellar play of Spencer Coup, who led the team on in points/g (18.6), rebounds/g (8.4), assists (25), blocks, and in makes from the floor, from three and at the line.
All of that changed in the Herington game when Coup took an awkward fall, breaking his wrist and ending his season.
Since that game, the Gorillas are 1-4, evening out to 7-7 on the year, but Solomon remains steadfast and has worked to overcome this, preparing for a string of tough battles down the stretch.
“People have had to step up because of injuries and I'm proud of all of our guys,” Solomon head coach Kyler Stein said. “Everyone has to do a few things better to fill that gap from Coup, some nights we have done those well, and other nights we have struggled. It's been good to see our younger guys get into varsity games and play well and to see some older guys knock down some big shots they typically don't take.”
While it would have been easy for Solomon to hang their head over their current situation, this team remains hungry after a season that saw them make a Cinderella run at the state tournament last March.
“We've done many things well but I think one of the best things I've seen is the buy-in,” Stein said. “We’ve been hard on them at times but they've responded. We've had to adjust many things in this first half of the season but our guys constantly compete and work every day to do what is asked of them.”
Offensively, Solomon is now led in scoring by sophomore standout Carlos Duran, who averages double-digit scoring on any given night.
Defensively, the Gorillas continue to improve after a shaky start to the season on that side of the ball.
“We’ve really grown in our defensive effort,” he said. “We made some tweaks and changes to what we do defensively and we have played much better in that area. Our guys have now bought into the defensive end and pride themselves on holding teams under their season average.”
While the defensive end has come along nicely, Solomon has had to reset the way they play on offense, something that will ultimately make or break the Gorilla's season down the stretch.
“Our offensive movement has to be better,” Stein said. “We struggle to score the ball at times. It's something we work on daily to break the standing and watching habits. We played a couple of games where we ran great offense, and we need to build that up to consecutive games in a row of good unselfish basketball.”
While the road ahead will be far from easy, the Gorillas seem willing to put in the work, and if the team can start clicking offensively again, Solomon could still be a team to watch come sub-state time.
“I constantly challenge our guys each day to get 1% better not just to compete against the next opponent but also compete against themselves,” Stein said. “The biggest challenge I feel every team and coach faces is complacency, we can't get complacent, we must work every single day to improve and continue on course.”
The Gorillas will be back in action on Tuesday when Solomon travels to Little River to take on another state-ranked foe.
For continuing coverage of Solomon hoops all season long, stay tuned to the Salina Post.