By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
With very few other games happening around the state of Kansas on a Monday evening, all eyes turned to Gypsum, and to a battle between #3 teams as Southeast of Saline hosted the Ellinwood Eagles.
This game started off as good as advertised, but the Trojans proved too mighty for Ellinwood, handing the Eagles their first loss of the season in convincing 74-48 fashion, moving both teams' records to 17-1.
For a team going through an alleged shooting slump, Southeast looked masterful on the offensive end of the floor, led by Eli Sawyers (25), Luke Gebhardt (15), and Danny Kejr (11).
“We hit some shots, Danny was ultra-aggressive to the rim and we were pretty darn good defensively again,” SES head coach Bryson Flax said. “That’s a pretty tough team to guard when you have to bring extra help on a guy like Dutton and that’s a pretty good ball club, they’re going to make a run in a tough sub-state.”
For his part in all of this, Brit Dutton finished his night with 30 points to lead all scorers, but received just 18 from his supporting cast, not nearly enough to slip out of town with a win.
On both ends of the floor, it was a big game for Luke Gebhardt, who frequently found himself defending Dutton, but consistently proved to be up to the task.
“Luke did an excellent job on Brit,” Flax said. “On the offensive end, he was aggressive too. I need to look at the numbers but I felt like we assisted on a lot of buckets and we want to continue to get better at that.”
All-in-all ten different Trojans notched at least a bucket, and even against a top-three opponent SES forced double-digit turnovers while coughing up the ball just seven times themselves.
Now, Southeast will turn their attention to Ellsworth, where the Trojans can secure a second-straight league title if they can beat the Bearcats on Tuesday night.