Southeastern women’s basketball team ran its winning streak to five straight while the Savage Storm men split Great American Conference matchups at home last week.
Coach Darin Grover’s Savage Storm women stopped leagueleading Harding, 62-49, before cruising by Arkansas Tech by a 77-58 count in the week’s finale.
The Southeastern men rode their best half of the season after intermission to a 94-58 victory over Harding but couldn’t duplicate that late surge against Arkansas Tech in dropping a 7664 verdict.
Women
Harding entered the contest unbeaten in GAC play but the Savage Storm played toe-totoe with the Bison throughout the first half with a 16-16 deadlock after one quarter which advanced to a 22-all tie at intermission as well.
Despite a rough offensive night for leading scorer Caitlin Kobiske, who managed just one for 12 shooting, Southeastern began to pull away in the third period. Holli Lindley scored five points during a 7-0 Savage Storm burst that gave Grover’s club the lead for good.
They got seven straight points from Ashton Hackler off the bench to push the advantage to as much as 10 in the quarter.
That margin ballooned to as much as 16 in the final frame thanks to 67 percent shooting by the hosts from which the visitors had no answer.
Kenzli Warden poured in a team-high 18 points but it was a massive double-double from Lindley that made the biggest impact as she tallied 17 points and a season-high 13 rebounds.
It was more business as usual for the Savage Storm in the Arkansas Tech triumph as Kobiske found her shooting touch while connecting on 10 of 16 field goal tries, including four three pointers, while tallying 31 points and eight rebounds.
Lindley also scored 12 points as Southeastern overcame a 3433 halftime deficit with a 24-7 burst in the third quarter.
Men
Down 36-35 at the halftime break against Harding, the youth-laden Southeastern team put on a second half blitz for 20 straight minutes that hasn’t been seen all season.
Coach Kelly Green’s squad erupted for 59 points after the break, connecting on 23 of 38 from the field (61 percent) which included five three pointers.
The Savage Storm had everything clicking, scoring virtually at will from all over the court, including a season-best 52 points in the paint.
A 14-3 flurry in the first four minutes of the second half proved to be an omen of things to come as Southeastern just kept pouring it on during an offensive resurgence from nearly the entire lineup.
The lead increased to 18 just past the midway point of the half on a D.J. Dill layup and the Savage Storm never looked back in continuing to pull away for easily their highest offensive production of the GAC season.
Dill connected on eight of 14 from the field and all seven free throws while leading five double figure scorers for Southeastern with 25 points. Robert Briley chipped in 16 points and nine rebounds with Santiago Camacho Gomez adding 12 and Ethan Wilkerson scoring 10.
Freshman Daniel Halldorsson established himself in the Southeastern record book, posting the first triple-double in the Division II era and first in nearly three decades by a Savage Storm player with 11 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists in the contest.
Southeastern was in a similar spot in the Arkansas Tech meeting two days later with a slim deficit at halftime but connected on just three of 16 three point tries after the break, hitting 34 percent overall from the field.
An Elijah Hughey trey and two Halldorsson free throws 90 seconds into the second half put the Savage Storm in front 37-35 but that proved to be the final lead of the day.
Dill once again paced the scoring with 17 points while Briley added 13 and Hughey finished with 11.
