By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post Contributor
The Southeast of Saline girls basketball team will make the short trek to Minneapolis for a sub-state semifinal with the Beloit Trojans on Friday after knocking off Lyons 51-25 on Tuesday.
SES comes into this game ranked as the #7 team in Class 3A and riding a ten-game win streak while Beloit enters at 10-11 fresh off a narrow one-point upset of Council Grove.
The two Trojans have done battle twice this year already, with Southeast coming out on top both times 54-47 and 59-51.
“Beloit has some kids that can really score well,” SES head coach Shauna Smith said. “They play very hard and they have a height advantage over us. They’ve played us tougher than anyone outside of the Sterling Tournament and it’s going to be a tough game for us.”
Beloit’s strength lies in their size, a stark contrast to Southeast, who runs a rotation of ten guards, keeping teams sped up and off-balance.
“They want to play the ball inside,” Smith said. “They have some kids who rebound really well on us and they want to slow the pace while we want to get the pace moving and play up-tempo. Their inside game is going to be hard for us to stop.”
Addison Budke and Tatem Tietjens will remain the focal points of the Southeast defense in this game. That pairing in the paint has averaged more than 20 points against the Trojans in their two meetings this season.
“We’ve spent the last couple of days working on how we’re going to guard their bigs and the girls have responded really well to that,” she said. “They do a great job of taking the things we work on in practice to the game.”
Both Trojan teams sit just two wins away from a state tournament-berth but for SES, the focus remains on surviving and advancing against a tough league foe.
“This is what we’ve had our eyes on all season,” Smith said. “We’re ready to go and see where we’re at.”
Tip-off between the Trojans is set for 7:30 pm at Minneapolis High School with the winner advancing to the final to play either Riley County or Smoky Valley for a ticket to the state tournament.
As always, the game can be heard on KINA (910 AM or 107.5 FM) or streamed live on the Salina Post courtesy of Bennington State Bank.
For more on SES throughout the sub-state tournament, stay tuned to the Salina Post.