By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
Despite a rough shooting night offensively, the Southeast of Saline boy’s basketball team held Beloit in check for 32 minutes, handing the orange Trojans their second loss in 13 games in a 41-33 rock fight.
With this win, SES moves to 15-1 on the year and remains a perfect 7-0 in league play, while Beloit falls to 11-5.
Beloit came into this game playing the best basketball of their season, and both offenses quickly ran into a brick wall with the quarter-high score for either team failing to exceed 12 points.
“We just couldn’t score,” SES head coach Bryson Flax said. “We were doing great defensively and we were close to our best on that end of the floor. We had shots offensively we just couldn’t knock them down. That kind of stuck and I thought we took good shots, we just have to knock those down.”
The third quarter in particular was rough on both teams, seeing a combined ten points split evenly between two generally proficient offensively units.
“That was an ugly quarter and I told them in the huddle after the third that we were doing everything we needed to defensively we just flat out couldn’t score,” Flax said. “They did some good things with their length and they played well defensively but we have to find ways to hit shots.”
Only two total players notched double digits in this game, with Luke Gebhardt leading all scorers with 14 points, 12 of which came in the first half.
“Luke was really good for us,” he said. “He got us going on a little run to take the lead early and he always sticks with it. I thought he played outstanding and I thought Eli and Nakari did some good things too.”
With another win over the rival Trojans, SES takes the regular season sweep in the Trojan War, and is well on their way to securing yet another league title before sub-state at the end of February.
Next up for Southeast will be a trip to Minneapolis to take on the lowly Lions on Friday night.