Rough second half performances for both the ladies and men proved to be Southeastern’s undoing as the Savage Storm dropped a pair of conference battles with Southwestern last Thursday in their final action before the holiday break.
The third quarter was a complete nightmare for Coach Darin Grover’s women as they fell 75-59 and the Savage Storm men weren’t able to overcome a massive threepoint shooting disparity in the 7462 loss in the nightcap.
Both clubs’ next action is slated for January 3 at Southern Nazarene.
Women
Southeastern scored the first 11 points of the contest and looked well on the way to victory leading 20-6 through one stanza.
The Savage Storm built as much as a 17-point bulge before the visitors narrowed the gap to 31-25 at the halftime break. That only set the stage for a disastrous 10-minute run for Southeastern.
Grover’s club connected on just two of 20 field goal tries in that decisive period and were outscored 33-6 thanks in part to the defensive length of post Landry Allen, who blocked five of the Southeastern shot attempts in that period by herself.
Kenzli Warden made a three pointer that put the Savage Storm back in front briefly at 34-32 with 7:28 remaining but they didn’t score again for more than six minutes when Tori Kilburn squelched an unbelievable 21-0 burst by the visitors as they scorched the nets for 77 percent shooting.
Kilburn had three treys and hit eight of 12 field goal tries to finish with 20 points and nine rebounds. Abbie Barr was the only other Southeastern player to reach double figures with 12 points, all of which came via four three pointers.
Men
A pair of late first half three pointers pushed the Southwestern advantage to 43-32 at the break and the hosts were playing catch up the rest of the night.
Each time however that the Savage Storm made a push to try and claim the lead the visitors had the answer with a three-point dagger as they canned 12 of 26 for the game from beyond the arc. That equated to a 36-9 scoring difference on treys as Southeastern hit just three of 16 tries.
Local product Ethan Wilkerson put together another solid performance, narrowly missing his first career double- double as he finished the contest with 16 points and nine rebounds.
Chandler Dickinson checked with 13 and Deondre Dunn provided 10 as he sank two of the team’s three treys with the other coming from Wilkerson early in the game. Dunn also pulled down eight rebounds.
