By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
The Southeast of Saline girl’s basketball team will travel to Beloit in search of the second five-game winning streak of their 2021-22 season.
With two league wins this week over Beloit and Minneapolis, the Lady Trojans can secure a second straight NCAA league title for the first time since 2015.
“It would be great to win the league in back-to-back years was but we haven’t really talked about it that much,” SES head coach Shauna Smith said. “We want to keep our win streak going and continue to handle our business in league.”
SES took the first game against Beloit back on December 10th by a final score of 54-47, led by strong double-digit performances from Karsyn Schlesener and Avery Caselman.
“We really just outlasted Beloit in the first game between us,” Smith said. “We didn’t necessarily outplay them but we were able to score well down the stretch and we’re hopeful that our good offense here recently can continue tonight.”
Southeast will once again have to contend with the likes of Tatem Tietjens and Peyton Remus who combined for 27 points in the Beloit loss.
While both teams have improved since the week two meeting, Beloit’s young core of talented newcomers has gained a ton of valuable experience in the months since.
“They’re shooting the ball pretty well from the outside and they’re playing a lot of freshmen who have gotten some really good experience,” she said. “They’ve gotten worked into the system and they’re much more well-rounded now.”
If SES wants to put themselves in a position to wrap up the league before sub-state they will need to be stronger on the offensive glass and more methodical in how they run their offense, two skills that the Trojans excelled at in January.
“We’re going to have to make them play some defense and force them to spend more time on that side of the ball,” Smith said. “In that first game, we weren’t getting the offensive boards and we have to make sure we get the best look we can find.”
Tip-off for part two of the Trojan war is set for 6 pm in Beloit with the boy’s game to follow at 7:00.
As always both games can be heard on KINA (910 AM or 107.5 FM) or streamed live on the Salina Post.