By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
After starting their season 0-2 the Salina Central boy’s basketball team wasted no time righting the ship, eliminating their cross-town rivals from Salina South before knocking off Goddard-Eisenhower to return to .500.
Now, the Mustangs will look to continue their December push and close out the pre-Christmas portion of their schedule strong as Central prepares to host 2-1 Ark City at the Brickhouse on Friday night.
These two wins have reinvigorated a Salina Central team loaded with talent, but still discovering its new identity after graduating the lion's share of their minutes from a season ago.
“Winning definitely helps a team’s confidence,” Mustang head coach Ryan Modin said. “I think it also does a lot to get guys to buy in. Our players are figuring out what we need to do to be successful.”
Much of the success that Central has found has come in the form of pressing defense, and transition offense, where the Mustangs surrendered just 42 points per contest in their pair of wins.
“Our defense has been really good,” Modin said. “We’ve made it difficult for teams to get in a rhythm on offense and we’re creating turnovers.”
On the other side of that coin, the Mustangs will look to continue improving their offense as new scorers and distributors alike settle into their new roles.
“I still want to see us continue to be more efficient on offense,” he said. “We’ve improved the last couple of games and the better we get in our ball movement and shot selection, the tougher we’re going to be to stop.”
With two big wins already in hand, Central will turn its attention to an Ark City team that they swept last season, but that like the Mustangs, come into this contest with a new scoring identity.
“They’re always physical on the defensive end and pretty efficient offensively,” Modin said. “Their offense is a little different so we’ll have communicate well so they don’t get easy looks close to the basket. We have to go in with a mindset of toughness.”
While this matchup, like all others, presents its own unique set of challenges, Central will look to remain consistent in the things that have worked for them over the last week.
“We have to keep playing defense the way we have and continue to play with confidence on the offensive end,” he said.
Tip-off between the Mustangs and Bulldogs is set for 7:30 pm on the campus of Salina Central High School following the girl’s game at 6:00.
For continuing coverage of Mustang hoops all season long stay tuned to the Salina Post, and follow us on Twitter @spostsports.