By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
The Southeast of Saline Lady Trojans basketball team will host the 2-4 Minneapolis Lions on Friday at 6:00.
SES took some positive momentum into the break, winning two of their last three against Sacred Heart and Rossville, and will look to continue building off that in the new year.
With the state imposed moratorium on high school athletics, the Trojans, like every other team in the state, were unable to return to practice until yesterday, so shaking off the rust early in this contest will be essential for Southeast.
The Lions are led by a solid post presence in Courtney Forte, who set a school record for single-game rebounds, grabbing 25 against Sacred Heart.
“We have to rebound well,” SES head coach Shauna Smith said. That’s been the difference in several of our games and Minneapolis has very good post play so we have to take care of that.”
The Lady Trojans will also be focused on finding better shots and longer possessions heading into the new year.
“One of the things we’re concentrating on is getting better looks,” Smith said. “I felt like we were probably playing defense 70% of the time in those early games so we need to take better shots.”
Offensively, Southeast has been led by junior Karsyn Schlesener, averaging 14.4 points per game.
Beyond Schlesener, the Lady Trojans have gotten good, but inconsistent production from a number of underclassmen, with individual double-digit performances by Lexi Jacobson, Avery Caselman and Maddie Harris.
“I’d like to see some other kids step up and score a little more,” she said. We need more consistency, if someone is scouting us they probably have no idea what our offense even is so we need to tighten that up.”
Tipoff between SES and Minneapolis will be Friday at 6pm at Southeast of Saline High School, as always games can be heard on KINA (910 AM/107.5 FM) or streamed on Salina Post.