By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
As the Southeast of Saline boy’s basketball team heads into the final three weeks of their regular season, the business of collecting another league title takes center stage, as they welcome in Beloit for round two of this year’s Trojan War.
Southeast comes into this contest ranked as the #2 team in Class 3A at 14-1, while Beloit enters at 11-4, having won 11 of their last 12 games.
The first time these two met on Beloit’s home floor this game wasn’t even a contest in a 68-46 decimation of the Trojans in orange, but both sides will be gearing up for a much different matchup this time around as Beloit’s season has done a full about-face.
“It’s hard to compare Beloit then to Beloit now,” SES head coach Bryson Flax said. “They’re playing at a really high level, they’re rebounding the ball well and they have four guys who are averaging close to double figures. They’re harder to guard and overall they’re playing with a lot of confidence.”
While Beloit looked out of sorts on both ends of the floor during a stretch that saw them start their season 0-3, the Trojans have become a force to be reckoned with, discovering more and more about themselves with every passing game.
“They’ve settled into an identity as a zone team and they play their bigs together,” Flax said. “They’ll spread you out and play high-low to clear the baseline. They post extremely hard, they’re efficient around the rim and if you overhelp they can knock down shots on the outside.”
Offensively, Bryce Beisner and Wyatt Broeckelman continue to create mismatches on both ends of the floor for opponents, but are no longer the only focal points of this Beloit team.
“Broeckelman on the outside and Beisner on the inside haven’t changed but Quinn Eilert is playing really well all around the stat line,” he said. “They’re not turning the ball over and Noah Gerstner is shooting the three-ball really well which opens up the paint.”
With all of this new firepower, SES is approaching this game as if they were playing an entirely different opponent, and will be ready for a real battle on Tuesday night.
“It’s fantastic for us to have another tough opponent like this down the stretch,” Flax said. “It’s not just a quality opponent but one that we have a chance to see in sub-state. They look like a whole new team compared to who we saw in that first game, we’re expecting a dogfight.”
Tip-off between the two Trojans’ is scheduled for 7:30 at Southeast of Saline High School following the girl’s game at 6:00.
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.