Box Score BETHANY, Okla. – Southeastern rallied from a double-digit second half deficit against Southern Nazarene, but was unable to complete the comeback, falling 87-81 on Saturday afternoon in Bethany, Okla.
The loss drops the Savage Storm to 10-14 overall on the season and 8-10 in Great American Conference play.
SE trailed by 12 points four minutes into the second half, but slowly whittled the deficit away, getting as close as one point on a pair of occasions.
The Storm trailed by eight points with 40 seconds to play, but eventually cut the gap to just three points with 25 seconds to play after threes from
Bailey Welch and
Ronay English, but that was as close as it would get as SNU hit a free throw with 22 seconds left and got an offensive rebound and a put back on a missed three throw with 21 to play.
Welch paced all scorers with 24 points in the contest with three three pointers along with a 9-of-10 performance from the free throw line.
Cheree Kiser came off the bench with 18 points on an 8-of-14 shooting night, while English added 15 points thanks to three three pointers of her own.
Emily Williams led SE on the boards with six rebounds, while
Taylor Richards and
Breana Small-Peppers each added five.
Richards dished out a team-high five assists while Welch added three.
The Storm took a 16-4 edge in points off turnovers, but SNU answered that with a 13-3 advantage in second chance points.
The teams traded buckets out of the gate with SE taking a 7-6 lead before the Crimson Storm used an 11-4 run to mount a 24-11 edge with 11:24 to play in the first half.
Southeastern would eventually cut the deficit back down to six points, but another SNU run would leave the Storm trailing 44-31 with 2:16 to play.
SE would get the halftime deficit to nine points thanks to a Welch three with one second remaining.
The lead would grow back to double-digits early in the second half and SNU would hold a 57-45 edge with 16:23 to play.
The Storm would chip away and close the gap to 71-70 on a pair of Welch free throws with 6:14 to play.
SNU would answer that with a three and Kiser would come back and convert an old-fashioned three-point play to once again close the gap to one point with 5:19 to play.
