Box Score SEARCY, Ark. – Southeastern got 20 points from
Andris Misters, but saw its regular season come to a rocky conclusion on the wrong end of an 85-58 loss to Harding on Saturday afternoon in Searcy, Ark.
The loss drops the Savage Storm to 15-11 on the season and 11-9 in Great American Conference play.
SE finishes in a tie for fourth with Arkansas-Monticello in the final standings, but despite losing the tiebreaker to UAM for seeding purposes will end up with the No. 4 seed due to Northwestern Oklahoma State being ineligible for the tournament. Southeastern will open the tournament with an 8:30 p.m. matchup against Ouachita Baptist on March 8 in Bartlesville, Okla.
Misters finished the night shooting 7-of-12 from the field with a 5-for-5 effort at the line to post 20 points which is his second-best outing of the season.
He was the only Storm player in double-digits as
Steven Kohli posted eight points and
Quinton Threadgill finished with seven.
Despite turning in his lowest scoring effort of the season with five points,
Chris Roussell did hit a career milestone, scoring his 1,000
th point with his first jumper in the contest.
Threadgill dished out five assists, but SE struggled from the field with a 35.1 percent shooting night that included a 2-for-11 mark from behind the arc.
Kohli led the way on the glass for SE with seven rebounds, while Roussell chipped in four.
SE held small edges in points off turnovers, 6-5, and second-chance points, 9-4, but the difference was a 56.5 percent-to-35.1 percent shooting differential that included a 12-to-2 advantage in made threes for the Bisons.
The Storm took an early lead out of the gates after back-to-back buckets by Kohli and
Mateus Oliveira for the 4-3 advantage.
The teams would trade buckets and SE would again jump ahead 8-6 on a Kohli layup at the 14:28 mark.
HU answered with six-straight points to regain the lead, pushing it to as many as six before the Storm trimmed the deficit back to 26-22 on an
Antonio Worthy layup with 4:20 to play in the half.
The Bisons would follow then score the final nine points of the half to put SE in a 35-22 hole at the half.
The second half opened with an HU three and would get no better as it continued.
SE would have some answers early, three times closing the gap to 14 points, the last time coming on an Oliveira layup with 17:13 to play which made the score 43-29.
An 8-2 Bisons run would extend the lead to 20 points, but Roussell's first bucket of the game would cut the lead back to 18 points.
HU would answer again, and twice more SE would close the deficit to under 20-points, with the last being on a pair of Kohli free throws with 7:46 to play.
From that point on, the Bisons outscored the Storm 17-9 to fashion the 85-58 final.
