For the first time in two weeks the Southeastern basketball teams return home this weekend for Great American Conference action facing Southern Arkansas on Saturday afternoon.
The Savage Storm is coming off a rough trip to Arkansas that saw them take narrow losses on late free throws at Henderson State to close out the trip.
Coach Darin Grover’s women started well by toppling Ouachita Baptist, 60-47, but suffered a 64-62 setback to Henderson State.
On the men’s side, the Savage Storm fell 83-58 at Ouachita Baptist and then their decade-long nightmares continued at Henderson State with a heartbreaking 92-91 defeat.
Women
Southeastern trailed 15-13 through one stanza against Ouachita Baptist before riding a 16-7 second quarter run fueled by 10 points by Caitlin Kobiske to claim a 29-22 edge at the half and never trailed again.
The host Tigers closed within five points at the end of three quarters, but the Savage Storm responded with a 16-8 flurry in the fourth to finish it out.
Kobiske posted a double-double with 23 points on eight of 13 shooting to go along with 10 rebounds.
Kenzli Warden tossed in 10, Ashton Hackler had nine with Stevie Stinchcomb and Holli Lindley contributing eight points apiece.
A dismal start that included just a three for 15 shooting performance in the first period at Henderson State dug the Southeastern women a massive hole from which they were playing out of nearly the entire game.
Down 16-9 after one period, they managed to narrow the gap to 2927 at the half but the Lady Reddies surged back to a 48-41 advantage through three frames.
The Savage Storm fought back to tie it at 56 and again at 62 with 49 seconds remaining following a five-point burst that was capped by a Stinchcomb three pointer.
Lindley came up with a steal at the 29-second mark but Southeastern turned the ball over, setting up the winning free throws from the hosts in the waning seconds.
Kobiske led three double figure scorers once again with 19 points with Warden chipping in 17 and Hackler 12.
Men
Little went right for the young Savage Storm in the opener at Ouachita Baptist, hitting only one of their first 17 three-point attempts which eventually propelled the hosts to a 39-18 cushion at the halftime break.
Coach Kelly Green’s squad finally found the range while sinking six of their final 10 trey attempts but the massive deficit was just too much to overcome.
Daniel Halldorsson had a solid night in producing a double- double with 11 points and 14 rebounds. Landon Condiff and D.J. Dill tallied 11 points each as well with Chandler Dickinson just missing double digits with eight points.
Shooting was much better against Henderson State as the Savage Storm shot 52 percent in the first half and even improved that mark to 59 percent in the second half. The Reddies were even better however in scorching the nets for a phenomenal 73 percent after intermission.
Southeastern also cashed in with 32 of 40 free throw attempts but ultimately erased Southeastern’s three-point edge with 18 seconds left thanks to a clinching threepoint play in the final three seconds.
Five players scored in double digits for the Savage Storm paced by Halldorsson’s 26 points. Chandler Dickinson contributed a season-best 20 with Santiago Camacho Gomez tossing in 16, Condiff 15 and Robert Briley 10 points.
