The Abilene Cowboys used a big second quarter in their 61-51 road victory at Southeast of Saline Tuesday night.  Abilene trailed 12-11 at the end of the first quarter but outscored the Trojans 20-2 in the second quarter and never looked back.  The meeting between the two schools was the first since 2005 and the first time the Cowboys had played in Gypsum since 2000.

Abilene trailed 12-7 with 1:05 to play in the first quarter but finished the quarter on a 4-0 run to trail by 1.   The Cowboys, overall, finished the first half on a 24-2 run and built a 31-14 halftime lead.  Abilene got big second quarter performances from Avery Bryson and Kaleb Becker.  Bryson scored 7 of his game high 17 points in the second and Becker 6 of his 15 in the quarter.

In the second half Abilene got off to a fast start and built a 23 point lead at 43-20 with 3:30 to play in the third quarter. Southeast of Saline would finish the quarter on an 11-3 run and cut the deficit to 46-31 to start the fourth.  In the final quarter there Trojans never quit and got the final margin down to 10 points at the end of the game.

Southeast of Saline was led in scoring by Nakari Morrical Palmer with 15 points.  The Trojans also got double figures from Eli Sawyers, who finished with 13 points and Jaxon Gebhardt who totaled 11 points.  Abilene, which entered the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association rankings at #4 this week, improved to 2-1 with the victory.  The Trojans fell to 1-3 and will travel to Hillsboro on Thursday.