By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
Things couldn’t have started much better for the Southeast of Saline girl’s basketball team, who began their season in the win column with a 49-36 victory over Hesston.
Even a second-quarter power outage couldn’t stop the Lady Trojans, who finished their season opener with five different players at or above the eight-point mark in a true team win.
“For an opening night game, I was very satisfied with what we did,” SES head coach Shauna Smith said. “We had some miscommunication but that’s part of the game. I couldn’t have asked the girls to play any better than we did.”
The Lady Trojans began the night on an 8-0 run and never looked back, leading wire-to-wire in a bizarre game that ended 20 miles away from where it began.
With 2:46 remaining in the second quarter, the power in the Southeast gym was knocked out, and both teams braced for a delay that seemed certain to end in a postponement.
However, the unlikely heroes of the day would be the fine folks at Kansas Wesleyan University, who opened and staffed Mabee Arena so that the games could continue.
“This was the easiest ‘yep, we’ll find a way to make it [happen]” that we’ve ever given,” KWU Deputy AD Steve Wilson said in a tweet. “We don’t just talk about community in this county, we live it.”
Off the restart, the Lady Swathers came to life, but a big bucket for the Southeast would stop the run and put the purple and white back in the driver's seat as SES cruised to victory.
Three different players notched double digits as Brielle Ptacek, Abigail Pearson and Reagan Goetz all posted ten-point performances, followed by Lexi Jacobson and Maddie Harris with eight.
“At different points in the game we had different people scoring and we know that’s how our season is going to be,” Smith said. “We don’t need anyone to put up 20 points on any given night but we have 5-6 kids that are all capable of doing that.”
It was also an exceptional night for Abigail Pearson in the paint, who made a massive difference on the defensive end in addition to her ten-point evening.
“Abigail is fearless,” she said. “You can tell her to play anywhere and she’ll go play it. She’s going to play a lot in the post for us this year and she doesn’t care about size.”
Things won’t get easier for the ninth-ranked Lady Trojans, who will take on Smoky Valley at home before traveling to Beloit to open league play next week.
“I like our schedule,” Smith said. “Playing these teams is only going to make us better for the postseason and it gives us a chance to see where we’re at.”
For continuing coverage of Lady Trojan basketball all season long stay tuned to the Salina Post and follow us on Twitter @spostsports.