The Southeastern women’s basketball team ran its winning streak to five with an important road sweep at Arkansas-Monticello and Southern Arkansas last week to claw back into the Great American Conference playoff chase.
In the opener, the Savage Storm rallied in the final stanza for a 57-52 win at Monticello before running away for a 7650 victory over Southern.
Coach Kelly Green’s men weren’t quite as fortunate in dropping a pair of verdicts – 70-62 at Monticello before taking Southern Arkansas to overtime in an 83-79 loss.
Each team will have big outings on Saturday afternoon when they host Oklahoma Baptist.
Women
Freshman Tori Kilburn remained red hot with a monstrous double- double that included 22 points and 14 rebounds to go along with five blocked shots against Monticello.
Southeastern trailed 45-35 after three periods and saw the hosts extend the margin to an even dozen 90 seconds into the last frame.
They would not fold however, answering with an incredible 18-3 scoring blitz as Katie Allen tied it at 50 on a layup with 2:40 left and gave the Savage Storm the lead on a pair of free throws moments later.
In total, Southeastern yielded just one bucket over the final 8:34 of the contest.
Allen also had a big outing, tossing in a season-high 22 points as well, including four three pointers.
The Savage Storm trailed 19-17 through one quarter at Southern Arkansas but started to take command with an 18-10 flurry in the second and total control on a 25-7 burst in the third period.
Kenzli Warden played a massive role in the mid game surge, finishing a sizzling 13 of 16 on shooting from the field as she tossed in 30 points. Kilburn also was hot on seven of 10 to produce 19 points.
Southeastern shot a dandy 59 percent for the game, including a scorching 71 percent in the third frame.
Men
Monticello poured in a season- high 10 three pointers in the first meeting of the weekend and Southeastern never could find an answer in sinking just 37 percent overall for the game.
The Savage Storm were down 41-33 at the break and actually rallied to snag a 5548 edge on a Chandler Dickinson three pointer with 11 minutes remaining when things went way south as a decisive 18-2 blitz put it out of reach.
A trio of Southeastern players hit double figures spurred by 14 points from Tyler Long. Ethan Wilkerson connected for 13 and Saxon McWilliam chipped in 11 points.
The Southern Arkansas game was a tight one throughout as the lead changed hands 23 times, thanks in large part to a huge 46 points in the paint for the Savage Storm.
Southeastern sizzled the nets for 61 percent shooting before intermission but the Muleriders hung right there with 52 percent of their own.
Four players sank double digits in one of the better Savage Storm offensive outings of the season. Dickinson tallied 21 points and seven rebounds with Wilkerson adding 18 points and eight boards. Deondre Dunn scored a season-high 15 points and McWilliam checked in with 13 more.
