By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
On the road against the Fighting Irish on Friday, the Southeast of Saline boys’ basketball team kept the good times rolling, decimating Chapman 66-42 to improve to 14-1 on the year.
Despite facing a gauntlet of a schedule the Trojans have now outscored their opponents by 23 points on average, with nine blowout wins of 20 or more.
For a team with just four wins coming into this contest, the Irish showed real fight early and even held a 9-8 lead in the first quarter before Southeast closed on an 8-0 run to regain momentum and start to pull away.
“They came out with a lot of energy and confidence and they were able to do some really good things,” SES head coach Bryson Flax said. “It took us a little bit of time to settle into our offense but once we made those adjustments we got rolling a little bit.”
Chapman put a heavy emphasis on trying to take away Eli Sawyers and Nakari Morrical-Palmer holding them to just 10 and 6, but allowing Southeast’s depth to shine as the Trojans were led in scoring by Kayson Lilley (14) and Drake Augustine (10).
“When they’re putting so much emphasis on two of our players and leaving the middle of the floor open guys like Kayson, Caden, and Drake can really let it rip and Eli and Nakari made good decisions to set those guys up.”
Once again, the Trojans put on a show in transition, forcing Chapman into 19 turnovers while coughing the ball up just seven times themselves.
Despite playing at a high pace, SES has averaged under seven turnovers as a unit in their last four games, and has been excellent in turnover differential all season.
“We’re doing a nice job of taking care of the basketball and we’re not giving teams many extra opportunities,” Flax said. “We’re trying to preach forcing teams one shot and out and our guys are doing a nice job of not turning it over.”
Next up for the Trojans will be a game at the Purple Palace where SES will look to remain undefeated in league play, hosting Beloit on Tuesday.