By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
With just four weeks and change remaining in their regular season, the Salina South boy’s basketball team will start the final leg of their campaign with a home matchup against 5th-ranked Maize South on Tuesday night.
The Cougars come into this contest at 1-11 having picked up their first win of the season at the SIT last week, while the Mavericks enter at 10-2.
While this will be an uphill climb against another top-notch opponent, Salina South remains steadfast in working to improve every single night, and this game will provide another opportunity to do that against one of the best in Class 5A.
“Maize South is fast and extremely athletic,” Cougar head coach Jason Hooper said. “They have all of the pieces from the big, to the shooters to the veteran point guard who runs the show. They also have a lot of depth and when they go to their bench they don’t really lose much.
One of the biggest challenges for Salina South tonight will be in dealing with the Maverick’s press, something several teams have struggled to do in Maize South routs this year.
“We’ll have our hands full and one of our big keys will be in our transition defense,” Hooper said. “We can’t let them turn this into a track meet in the full court, we don’t have the depth to keep up with that for a whole game. We need to control the tempo and we need to be really disciplined on the offensive end.”
Defensively, the Cougars will have to find an answer for do-it-all point guard Isaiah Atwater, who has been just as dangerous as a scorer this season as he has been as a distributor.
“Everything starts and runs through Atwater,” he said. “He’s as good a point guard as anyone in the state and with another year of experience he’s that much better. They let him create, he can shoot from anywhere and they have a lot of pieces around him. They have a big 6-8 kid who plays at an elevation that a lot of our guys aren’t at yet so we have to do a good job making sure he doesn’t get to the rim and doesn’t get anything easy on the glass.”
All season long, the Cougars have stressed two elements of the game above all others, and those will need to be on full display tonight for Salina South to contend with a top-five foe on their home floor.
“We have to put our focus on rebounding and defense this year and so far that’s been a work in progress,” Hooper said. “We’ve tried to make defense our staple but we’ve given up way more points than any of us are comfortable with all season long. We’ve switched things up on that end to help ourselves but that allows teams like Maize South to shoot a lot of threes.”
Tip-off between the Cougars and Mavericks is set for 7:30 at Salina South High School following the girl’s game at 6:00.
For continuing coverage of Salina South basketball all season long stay tuned to the Salina Post.