By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
The Southeast of Saline Lady Trojan basketball team fell to 0-2 today with a 65-54 loss at the hands of Smoky Valley.
SES certainly improved from their 22-point loss at the hands of Hesston last week, but were still unable to overcome a strong night at the line from the Vikings, who dropped in 19 free throws on 26 attempts.
“I think early on we just dug ourselves a deep hole,” SES head coach Shauna Smith said. “It took a lot of energy to try to claw our way out of it and every time we would try we ended up turning the ball over and that turned into a lot of points for them.”
The Trojans did manage to get Karsyn Schlesener going with a 17-point performance from the junior.
SES also found great bench production from freshmen Lexi Jacobson and Maddie Harris who scored 14 and 12 points respectively.
The growing pains of youth and inexperience continue to make themselves felt for the Lady Trojans, but performances like these by Harris and Jacobsen paint a bright picture of the future at SES.
“I told some of our junior girls you may have to push them into their spots or talk to them on set plays because all of this is brand new to them,” Smith said. “We’re still trying to find our identity and we’ve been playing different players every night but we’ll get it worked out.”
Due to Covid-related circumstances, the Lady Trojans will not play Beloit on Friday or Abilene next Tuesday as scheduled, but will still play Sacred Heart on Saturday.
“It will be interesting, Sacred Heart is always a good game but right now any game that we can play is a good game for us,” Smith said.