By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
With just five games remaining in their regular season, including four more league games, the Southeast of Saline girl’s basketball team will return to the Purple Palace on Tuesday evening for round two of the Trojan War with Beloit.
Southeast comes into this contest at 13-2 and 5-1 in league play while Beloit enters at 4-11.
The Lady Trojans in purple are fresh off a wild week that saw two late fourth-quarter comebacks to earn narrow victories over Sacred Heart and Chapman in the dying minutes.
“It’s always good to have those experiences and now we’ve been there if we get into a position like that again this season,” SES head coach Shauna Smith said. “We’ve learned from that and it was great that we ended up winning but we went back and watched a lot of film to see how we can avoid getting into that situation again.”
Despite dropping a game to Minneapolis earlier this year, the Lady Trojans can still take yet another outright league title if they can win out in their final four NCAA games, making this a big one for SES.
While Southeast’s defense has been there for them all season long, the Lady Trojans will look to push for their peak offensively in the coming weeks, ahead of a loaded sub-state to cap off February.
“We have to get back to where we were offensively,” Smith said. “We’re not attacking the basket and we’re trying to live and die shooting the three. We need to get back to the rim and get back to doing the things we know we can do.”
This game will be a rematch of a 59-29 win for SES earlier this season, but both teams have undergone significant improvements since that December matchup, which should make this one much closer.
“We shot lights out early from three and really opened the first game up but we know that they’re going to guard us differently this time,” she said. “We expect them to get out and pressure us and I’m hoping this is a game where our offense can get going again.”
While Beloit has improved from a talent standpoint, the Lady Trojans are also much deeper than they were in 2022, and a new post-rotation could challenge SES inside.
“We played them in the third game of the season and they were basically starting over again with kids who hadn’t seen time,” Smith said. “They’ve gotten way better and deeper. Their post-play has improved with a deep rotation and they hit the offensive boards hard.”
To collect their sixth-straight victory and keep their league destiny well within their own hands, Southeast will once again have to contend with the always-dangerous Peyton Remus, while maintaining efficiency on offense.
“Their point guard runs their team so we have to keep her in check and make them earn their points,” Smith said. “Ultimately we just have to attack their basket, the Chapman game opened up when we did that and we have to continue that tonight.”
Tip-off between the two Lady Trojans’ is scheduled for 6:00 at Southeast of Saline High School with the boy’s game to follow at 7:30.
As always, both games can be heard on KINA (910 AM or 107.5 FM) or streamed with live audio and video on the Salina Post.