By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
The Southeast of Saline Trojans fall to 1-3 tonight with a 61-51 loss at the hands of the now 2-1 Abilene Cowboys.
The Trojans found themselves with an early lead, but were held to just two points in the second quarter, falling behind 31-14 at the half.
SES was able to outscore Abilene in the second half but that deficit proved too much to overcome as the Cowboys picked up their second consecutive victory.
“I told the kids I’m proud of the way they fought,” Trojan head coach Bryson Flax said. “But when you dig yourself a 21 point hole that’s hard to climb out of and you really need things to go your way more often than not.”
Aside from that dismal second quarter, Southeast got decent shooting performances from Nakari Morrical-Palmer, Eli Sawyers and Jaxson Gebhardt, who finished with 15, 13 and 11 respectively.
Shot selection didn’t seem to be an issue for the Trojans, but their inability to knock down shots left a lot of points off the board.
“We were at the rim getting good shots, we were right there,” Flax said. “I’m not upset with our shot selection, we wanted uncontested threes and shots at the rim and we got those but we just couldn’t convert. We have to be better about that.”
Abilene had their own double-digit scoring trio, led by Avery Bryson (17), Josh Stuber (15), and Kaleb Becker (15).
For SES, the pieces continue to be there, it just remains a matter of putting them all together for a full game.
“We have what it takes and we have a good squad,” he said. “We’re so talented in our top 12, we just have a lot of little things that are holding us back.”
It will be a short turnaround for Southeast who will face a 3-1 Hillsboro team coming off of a 85-22 win over Marion tonight on Thursday.