By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
After falling in four of their first five matchups to start the season, the Salina South girls’ basketball team has rallied to win four of their last six, and will head into the home stretch with far more experience and confidence than they had when the campaign began.
Despite holding one of the youngest rosters in Class 5A, the Lady Cougars have gone toe to toe with some of the best this season, and will look to continue putting the pieces together throughout the month of February.
“Our effort and our grit have been the best things I’ve seen from this team so far,” South head coach Justin Ebert said. “We’ve kept ourselves in a lot of games defensively and from game one to game twelve we’ve scrapped and battled on defense. It’s a great group of girls with the right mentality.”
That defensive effort has allowed the Lady Cougars to hold their opponents to under 40 points per game on average, perhaps best exemplified in a 44-14 win over Haysville Campus in early January.
Offensively, this is a team still getting accustomed to the varsity floor, but as the season has gone on that comfort has come for several underclassmen who now play a major role night in and night out.
“I knew we would be young but I’ve been surprised with some of our freshmen and sophomores and how much they’ve stepped up and contributed,” Ebert said. “We’re young but it’s been exciting as they’ve grown throughout the season and played big minutes for us.”
As the offense has come along, Salina South has coughed the ball up less, and found better looks in their half-court offense, two things that plagued them during their slow start to the season.
“Our girls are starting to handle the ball a lot better,” he said. “We struggled with turnovers early but we’re starting to value the basketball a little more and get better looks on the offensive end.”
Now, the team focus has shifted from handling things on the offensive side of the ball, to taking over, something South is certainly capable of doing with all the talent in their arsenal.
“We need to not only get shots up but to get the right shots up,” Ebert said. “I think at times we’re playing a little unconfident on the offensive side but we have girls who can knock down shots. We still just need to develop a little more confidence there and that’s starting to come along but we need to continue to grow.”
With the hopes that they can continue parlaying their newfound confidence into even wins, the Lady Cougars will stare down a gauntlet of a February schedule, with opponents like Maize South, Hutch, and Derby sure to test Salina South down the stretch.
“We’ve improved a ton from game one to where we’re at now,” Ebert said. “Our girls have competed, they’ve played hard and we’re getting better. I’m really excited to see what the next four weeks have in store for us and hopefully, we can be playing our best basketball into March.”
Salina South will return to the floor on Tuesday, January 31st to host 8-3 Maize South as one of eight remaining matchups on the regular-season calendar.
For continuing coverage of Lady Cougar hoops, stay tuned to the Salina Post.