A strong late surge propelled the Southeastern women to victory, but the Savage Storm struggled down in the stretch in its second semester opener as the split conference contests with Southwestern last Saturday at Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
Coach Darin Grover’s women claimed a critical 62-48 victory on the strength of a massive fourth quarter surge. With the win they improved to 4-2 in Great American Conference and 7-5 overall.
It was not a good finish for the Southeastern men, however, as the youth-laden club built a 13-point second half lead but could not hold off the Bulldogs in a 74-68 defeat.
Both clubs will be on the road this week before returning home on Thursday, January 16.
Women
Neither team could gain much of an edge through the first three stanzas as Southeastern was up 18-17 after one period until Southwestern responded for a 32-31 halftime advantage in the tight defensive affair.
The Savage Storm surged back to a 43-42 at the end of three frames before turning up the defensive heat another notch in the pivotal final quarter.
All told, Southwestern did not manage a single point over a span of more than eight minutes in which the Savage Storm posted 13 points to take control. Offensive catalyst Caitlin Kobiske had seven points during that flurry but it was the Southeastern defense that proved up to the task in holding the visitors scoreless for 13 consecutive ball possessions.
“It was pretty sloppy overall, but Southwestern makes it sloppy with the style they play,” Grover commented. “We turned it over 12 times in the first half, which hurt in sustaining much offensive flow. We didn’t shoot the ball very well outside but continued to grind things out defensively and were able to put together a nice run. Holli Lindley had a solid all-around game and Caitlin just did what Caitlin does in leading us.”
Although they struggled offensively throughout, hitting only 34 percent from the field including five three pointers, the Savage Storm did cash in at the charity stripe with a nearly automatic 25 for 27, which equated to 93 percent.
Kobiske was the ringleader of the offense with 21points as she connected on all 11 free throw attempts. Lindley pitched in a double-double by registering a season-high 11 rebounds to go with 14 points.
Kenzli Warden chipped in seven and Abbie Barr added six points.
Men
Southeastern outshot the visitors 48 percent to 42 percent as a team but only four of those field goal makes were three pointers while the Bulldogs hit 10 of 27 long range tries for the game.
In spite of the rough perimeter shooting, Southeastern rallied from a 40-34 deficit early in the second half.
Coach Kelly Green’s squad answered with an incredible 19-0 flurry fueled by 10 straight points from Santia Camacho Gomez, who made his first start of the season.
All the momentum appeared squarely on the Savage Storm side but that all began to slip away in the midst of a run in which the only Southeastern point was an Ethan Wilkerson free throw.
Southeastern managed just another D.J. Dill free throw before finally squirming free with a Landon Condiff layup with 4:16 remaining for their first field goal in a nearly 10 minute span.
By that point the Bulldogs had a 64-55 lead and never looked back from there.
Four Savage Storm players reached double figures led by Dill’s 19 points on nine of 15 shooting. Condiff and Camacho Gomez picked up 14 points apiece with Robert Briley pitched in 12 along with 10 rebounds.
