The Southeastern Savage Storm women wrapped up the pre-Thanksgiving break schedule last week by splitting a pair of non-conference road outings.
Coach Darin Grover’s squad took command early in a 62-53 triumph at Cameron but a 29-point second period blitz by the hosts at Arkansas Fort Smith was too much to overcome in a 9181 setback.
Leveling their record at 3-3, the Savage Storm will be off until the Great American Conference opener at home on Thursday, December 5 against Henderson State.
Southeastern held a slim 7-6 edge just over the midway point of the first period at Cameron before exploding on an 11-0 run to close the stanza and take complete command. Holli Lindley’s conventional three-point play started the flurry and Kaydrin Scott chipped in a pair of buckets in the paint.
It was a fairly even battle after that with the Savage Storm maintaining a 33-19 edge at halftime and 46-36 through three quarters.
Caitlin Kobiske was a workhorse inside, playing all but two minutes in the game while connecting on seven of 15 from the field on the way to a doubledouble. She tallied a team-best 22 points and also pulled down 11 rebounds.
Lindley also hit the double figure mark with 11 while Scott and Abbie Barr scored 10 apiece as Southeastern shot 38 percent from the field for the game.
The Savage Storm shooting percentage was near the same in the Fort Smith contest as they finished at 36 percent as a team, but it was an ice cold start that spelled doom. Grover’s squad shot just 21 percent (4 for 19) and 27 percent (5 for 18) in the opening two quarters as the hosts pulled out to a commanding 45-29 advantage.
Southeastern still trailed 73-51 heading to the final stanza when they caught fire, sinking 10 of 18 shots down the stretch (56 percent) en route to a 30-point scoring eruption but it proved to be too late.
Lindley had a strong outing with a season-high 22 points and three steals in spurring the Savage Storm offense. She hit seven of 12 field goal tries, including three treys.
Kobiske narrowly missed another double-double, tallying 20 points along with nine rebounds as she canned eight of 20 field goal tries.
Barr pitched in 11 points, Kenzli Warden had nine, Scott scored eight, Brianna Wietelman notched seven with Stevie Stinchcomb and Connie Hughes adding two apiece.