Jan 25, 2024

SES Returns Home to Host Clay Center in Opener of Back-to-Back

Posted Jan 25, 2024 7:50 PM

By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post

Salina Regional Orthopedic & Sports Medicine- Your home-field advantage starts here.
Salina Regional Orthopedic & Sports Medicine- Your home-field advantage starts here.

After a pair of podium performances at the Sterling Tournament last weekend, the Southeast of Saline basketball teams will be back in action for the first set of a back-to-back as they play host to Clay Center on Thursday night.

Girls Game: SE of Saline (7-3) vs. #8 Clay Center (6-4)

The Lady Trojans finished runner-up at this year’s Sterling Tournament, falling in the final to Smoky Valley, but will be eager to start a new winning streak against another quality opponent in Clay Center tonight.

“We talked about going back to some things that we do well,” SES head coach Shauna Smith said. “It’s always difficult when you take that much time off in between games, but we lived at the three-point line too much in that tournament and that’s not what we do.”

Now, Southeast turns their attention to a Lady Tiger team that they defeated 45-28 a season ago, but one that comes in with a much stronger resume at 6-4.

“Clay Center is very patient on offense and they’ll make you guard until they get the look that they want,” Smith said. “Defensively they’re very sound, they have a lot of help-side defense and we’ll need some good ball reversals to get around that.”

Like many of the opponents the Lady Trojans have faced this year, Clay Center lacks one true star who can be taken away, and Southeast will need to be prepared to guard 1-5 to have success this evening.

“All around they have a solid team,” Smith said. “They’ve got two post players inside who work really well together so we’ll have to make them work really hard. We’ll need to play smart defensively and get back to playing our game and not settling for threes.”

Tip-off between the Lady Trojans and Tigers is set for 6:00 at Southeast of Saline High School.

Boys Game: SE of Saline (5-5) vs. Clay Center (5-5)

On the boy’s side, this matchup will feature two teams trying to get above the .500 mark, with Southeast surging off of a third-place finish at Sterling last week.

“Any time you can come away with two wins at a midseason tournament you’re sitting in good shape,” SES head coach Bryson Flax said. “We saw some high-level competition and we were able to compete for the most part. I saw some good things out of a handful of guys.”

Now, the Trojan focus shifts to a Tiger team that will be eager for revenge after a 17-point thrashing at the hands of Southeast a season ago.

“Clay Center is an experienced group, some of those kids have been playing since they were freshmen and they’ve had the same group for 2-3 years now,” Flax said. “They have state tournament experience and they get downhill very well. It’s difficult to stay in front of you and they’ve run a lot our of a five out dribble drive offense. We’ll have to be good against dribble penetration.”

After a rough 0-3 start against a gauntlet of tough opponents, Clay Center has bounced back down the stretch, winning five of their last seven games including a 66-45 rout over Whitewater-Remington on Saturday.

“They’ll press a little bit but they don’t really get out in passing lanes a lot,” he said. “They do try to take away the dribble drive but that potentially allows us to get some perimeter looks, we’ll just have to knock them down.”

The boys game is set to follow the girls at 7:30.

Broadcast Info
- Location: Southeast of Saline High School
- SES Live Stream: Link Below
- Pregame: 5:45 PM