By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
With a month to go in the regular season, the Southeast of Saline girls basketball team has already put together a stellar resume, and will look to continue an improbable run of dominance within their league throughout the month of February.
The Lady Trojans will enter the home stretch of their season at 10-3, ranked as the #8 team in Class 3A.
SES also enters February on a 19-game win streak against the NCAA dating back to 2019, with a chance to make it 20 when they take on Sacred Heart this Tuesday.
While previous renditions of this team showed flashes of this talent, this year’s team, which returned 100% of its scoring from the season prior, has been the one to put all the pieces together.
“I’ve been impressed by our consistency,” Trojan head coach Shauna Smith said. “Every night we come out and I know that our defense is going to be there. All of the girls know their role and they’ve all played in this program long enough to know what they need to do.”
The Southeast defense has been one of the best in the state, holding 8 of their 13 opponents to under 30 points, and allowing over 50 in just one non-overtime game.
The tip of that defensive iceberg came a week ago when the Lady Trojans held Republic County to just 12 points, shutting out the Buffs for the entire second half.
Southeast’s success hasn’t just come from picking on their league this season. The Trojans have gone toe-to-toe with some of the best teams in the state this season, and come out on top.
The crowning achievement of SES’ season so far came in the form of a 61-58 OT win over the then-#1 ranked Hugoton Eagles at the Sterling Tournament.
“The girls gave me a good feeling that we can take on anyone even if they outsize us,” Smith said. “They did a really great job of adjusting to that and we did the best job that we could guarding size in Sterling.”
That size disparity remains the biggest challenge for a Lady Trojan team that is nine-deep with incredible athletes, all of whom are guards.
“Every night we’re challenged by our lack of size,” she said. “There have been games that have come down to rebounds that we didn’t get just because of our size difference and even girls at 5-9 or 5-10 create challenges for us.”
While SES does continue to hang their hats on defense, the offense has begun to flourish since turning the calendar over to the new year.
In their first five games, Southeast scored over 50 points just one time. Since then the Lady Trojans have failed to hit that watermark just three times in eight games.
If SES can win their final five league games they will have completed back-to-back undefeated league season’s in the last two years, but key matchups against Sacred Heart, Minneapolis and Beloit will present challenges ahead of sub-state.
While the thought of another league title is an attractive one, the Trojans have their eyes on a much bigger prize this year.
“We know that we have to get to the sub-state championship game and go from there,” Smith said. “We’re very capable of accomplishing the goals that we’ve set out after but we have to be able to continue putting the ball in the bucket.”
SES will be back in action on Tuesday when they travel to Sacred Heart for a rematch with the Knights at 6 pm.
For more on Lady Trojan hoops in 2022, stay tuned to the Salina Post.