By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
After a hot start in 2021, the tenth-ranked SES Lady Trojan basketball team will travel to Minneapolis for a league contest to open the new year.
The Lions come in with a record of 6-1, riding a five-game winning streak into their game with SES
“Minneapolis is going to be well-coached and they know us inside and out,” SES head coach Shauna Smith said. “We have to take care of business, our league was a little down last year but everyone is a year older and every team has gotten a lot better.”
The Lions look much improved from their 2020-21 campaign in which they started the year 3-7 and finished at 10-11.
This quick, guard-focused, defense-first Minneapolis squad mirrors SES in many ways, allowing just 28 points per game to this point in the season.
“They’re a lot like us but they play a few more freshmen and they have different players that are going to score for them on different nights,” Smith said. “They don’t have a true post and they want to get after it full court.”
For the Trojans, getting players reactivated following the long break will be essential, with the team’s last contest coming back on December 20th.
“We have to have more pressure defense and we need to get to the line to get some people going,” she said. “Everybody had been contributing scoring-wise and we’ve been able to share the load there.”
Southeast comes in on a four-game winning streak of their own, and the winner of this contest is likely to find themselves in the KBCA rankings next week.
While the makeup and play style of these teams are quite similar, SES has the edge in experience, something previous renditions of the team lacked.
“The veterans on our team have really stepped up and we’ve had great leadership this season,” Smith said. “All of our kids have seen a lot of varsity time throughout the season and that has helped us in some really tough games.”
Tip-off between the Lady Trojans and Lions is set for 6 pm at Minneapolis High School with the boy’s game to follow at 7.
As always both games can be heard on KINA (910 AM or 107.5 FM) or streamed live on the Salina Post courtesy of Eagle Radio.