By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
As we approach the halfway mark of the 2022-23 regular season, the Southeast of Saline boy’s basketball team, still undefeated and ranked as the #1 team in Class 3A, will travel to the Sterling Tournament looking to maintain momentum and collect some hardware this week.
First up for Southeast (8-0) will be a rematch of a 70-38 victory from week one of their season against the 8-seed in Smoky Valley (4-4) as the Trojans and Vikings meet for their seventh matchup in the last four years.
Despite the familiarity of a series that has seen SES dominate, winning each of those seven contests, the Trojans recognize that this game is unlikely to look like the first against a Viking team that has righted the ship, winning four straight to get back to .500.
“I don’t know that the familiarity favors anybody,” SES head coach Bryson Flax said. “They’re better than they were early in the year and I hope we’ve gotten better too but we can’t think that we can just walk on the floor and be given anything. They’ve been playing much better basketball after Christmas and they’ll be feeling good and playing confident tonight.”
Part of that shift for Smoky Valley has been on the defensive end, where the Vikings now operate in a 1-3-1 zone, which has helped them hold their last four opponents under 50 points per game after allowing over 60 in their first four matchups.
“Some of their kids are finally settling into roles,” Flax said. “They weren’t quite sure who they were in that second game of the season but they’ve matured and they’re passing up bad shots to look for good shots. They’ve stayed aggressive offensively and it’s a night and day difference from the first time we saw them.”
In addition to that patience on the offensive end, more and more playmakers have started to step up for Smoky Valley, with a three-headed monster of Ki Blanchatt, Karson Pihl and Vincent Pickering combining to average almost 30 points per game.
While an elusive Sterling Tournament title looms three games away, the Trojans remain laser focused on handling their business one day at a time amongst a field that at the top, should challenge SES with teams like Sterling and Hugoton across the bracket.
“Hardware is nice but our priority is continuing to get better day by day and play our best basketball,” Flax said. “If we can stay locked in the accolades will come but I think winning games against quality opponents holds more value to our guys than a trophy would.”
Tip-off between the Trojans and Vikings is set for 7:30 pm at Sterling College with the winner advancing to the semifinal round to face either Lyons (4-3) or Scott City (4-4) at 5:30 on Thursday.
For continuing coverage of the Trojans and Lady Trojans all week at the Sterling Tournament stay tuned to the Salina Post and follow us on Twitter @spostsports.