By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
The Ell-Saline Cardinals boys basketball team snapped a 53 game losing streak on Tuesday that spanned three seasons with a 48-46 win over the Minneapolis Lions.
Their next task will come in the form of the #8 ranked Solomon Gorillas in an area road contest on Thursday night.
“It definitely feels good to get that monkey off our backs,” Cardinals head coach Marty Wendel said. “I don’t know if it hindered our confidence but once you know that you can win the way we play that definitely helps and I hope that helps us late in games down the stretch.”
Solomon will not make gaining another win easy for Ell-Saline, the Gorillas have outscored their first two opponents 153-92, including a 75-44 decimation of their rival Bennington on Tuesday.
“We play with great energy and effort,” Gorillas head coach Kyler Stein said. “We challenged the guys to come out early and make a statement and they did exactly that. We played very unselfish basketball and got our entire team involved offensively. I was very pleased with our performance.”
As the Cardinals prepare for this game, one of their biggest focuses has been on valuing possessions and limiting turnovers against an ever-improving Solomon defense.
“Offensively we have moments where we show maturity but sometimes we’re careless with the basketball and if that happens with these two games we have coming up we have no shot,” Wendel said. “If we want to get better we have to take care of the basketball.”
While the Gorillas have held each of their opponents to under 50 points this season, Coach Stein still sees more gains to make on that side of the ball.
“I thought we took steps in the right direction,” he said. “Our help defense improved but it's still not to that level we need it to be at. We did a good job executing our defensive game plan about 85% of the game but we still had some mistakes. It's still early in the season and I saw much more effort on the defensive side.”
On the other side of the ball, the Solomon scoring trio of Makaen Hastings, Caden Acosta, and Spencer Coup has dominated, averaging a cool 56 points per game between the three.
Ell-Saline will attempt to be the first opponent with an answer for that group on Thursday.
“Our defensive end is the biggest concern,” Wendel said. “We can’t allow them to get into the 70s like they have in their first two games and offensively we have to handle their 1-2-2 and we’re hoping to find open guys who are willing to attack.”
For Solomon, this game comes on the heels of a pair of road trips to start their season, and the Gorillas are looking forward to getting a boost from their home crowd.
“We have to come out and play with great energy,” Stein said. “It's our first game at home this year and we need to put on a show for our home crowd from the tip. Ell-Saline prevents some challenges so we will have to be assignment sound, attack the rim for 32 minutes and cause havoc on the defensive side.”
Tip-off between the Cardinals and Gorillas is set for 7 pm following the girl's game at Solomon High School.
Ell-Saline will be back in action to take on Bennington in another area duel on Friday night.