After getting off to rough starts in conference play while besieged by injuries the last two seasons, Southeastern head coach Darin Grover knew exactly how important the league-opening series was last week.
And Grover got exactly what he had hoped for his currently healthy squad as they notched two pivotal Great American Conference triumphs, stopping Henderson State (59-46) and Ouachita Baptist (7266) inside the friendly confines of Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
The Savage Storm women will be right back at home next week for games on Monday against Northwestern and Thursday versus Southern Nazarene to wind down the pre-holiday portion of the schedule.
“Every win is a big win right now after the way the last two years have gone,” Grover commented. “To be healthy and have depth helps a lot. Some of our newcomers have been vital to our success as well. We’re finally starting to find our identity offensively. We had 18 turnovers and had some defensive lapses against Ouachita that we’re going to need to get cleaned up though.”
In the Henderson State victory, the Savage Storm trailed 41-38 going into the final stanza before putting together one of its best quarters of the year as they outscored the visitors 21-5 down the stretch.
Southeastern trailed 46-44 with 5:32 remaining before closing the game on a phenomenal 15-0 run, taking the lead for good on a Caitlin Kobiske lay up with 3:35 to play. Four Savage Storm standouts all contributed offensively during the final flurry.
Neither team shot the ball very well at all in the contest as Southeastern hit just 30 percent for the game, including four of 19 on three pointers. But they were very good at the free throw line down the stretch in hitting 12 of 14 from the charity stripe to close the game.
Abbie Barr led the scoring charge for Southeastern with 13 points as Stevie Stinchcomb connected for 12 and Kenzli Warden added 11 to help take up the production of Kobiske, who was limited to seven points on just two of nine shooting. She did pull down a gamehigh 10 rebounds.
Another big fourth quarter was pivotal for Southeastern in the Ouachita Baptist victory as they were playing catch up most of the game after spotting the Lady Tigers a 19-9 advantage after one period.
Grover’s group erupted for 24 points in the second frame to narrow the gap to one at intermission. They never trailed again though after a Holli Lindley bucket in the paint on the opening possession of the final quarter.
As the Southeastern head coach mentioned, the Savage Storm were hampered by 18 turnovers, which led to a large amount of Ouachita’s 38-26 edge on points in the paint.
Four players hit double figures with Lindley and Kobiske each tossing in 15 points. Lindley added seven rebounds while Kobiske pulled down six.
Stinchcomb had another solid performance on the offensive end thanks largely to four treys on the way to 14 points. Warden also contributed 10.
