By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
The Ell-Saline girl's basketball team is off to their hottest start since 2011, flying out of the gates to 3-0.
Tonight, the Cardinals welcome in the 2-1 Bennington Bulldogs, who battled hard but fell in their first loss of the season to the Minneapolis Lions on Thursday night.
“This team will fight to the end,” Bulldog head coach Tracy Piepho said. “Even after getting shut out in the first quarter we battled, we could of taken the easy way out and had given up down 16 to 0 but we kept fighting. We are still a young and inexperienced team, I see us getting better every night.”
That Bennington offense will have to pick things up against a pesky Cardinals defense that held Solomon to just 11 points last night.”
“We were able to run some defensive sets and change personnel for later,” Ell-Saline head coach Bill Gies said. “The girls played hard, we had too many unnecessary fouls, but they played hard.”
Bennington swept the season series between the two last season but graduated a lot of talent and will face an Ell-Saline team that should be favored in this one.
“They really like to get out and pressure full court and half court,” Piepho said. “Coach Geis has them really working hard and playing physical. If they control the tempo and force turnovers they will be hard to beat. They don't back down to anyone.”
That respect is mutual and Ell-Saline will give Bennington their best shot regardless of the narratives or records coming in.
“They’re low in numbers but some of the kids they have can really ball out,” Gies said. “We have to force them to take shots that they don’t want to take and we may have some issues in the post but we think we can really run on these guys.”
For Bennington, taking care of the basketball and getting a better start off the line will be imperative as the Bulldogs close out their early-season tournament.
“We have to reduce our turnovers against their pressure,” Piepho said. “We struggled a bit with Minneapolis's pressure and it caused us to rush shots and miss getting the ball inside to our posts. We also need a quick start tonight, we can't dig ourselves a hole early like we did against Minneapolis.”
For the Cardinals, it will be trying to find more of the same as the team looks for their first 4-0 start in the last 15 years.
“We have to control the backcourt, work hard to limit their second-chance opportunities, cut down on the silly fouls, and really push the tempo,” Gies said.
Tip-off between Ell-Saline and Bennington is set for 6 pm in Brookville.