DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern scored the first five points of the contest and never trailed as it closed out the fall semester with a 67-53 win over Rogers State on Monday night in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
 
The win lifts the Savage Storm to 5-3 on the season heading into the holiday break with SE scheduled to be back on the court on Jan. 5 in Russellville, Ark., against Arkansas Tech at 5:30 p.m.
 
Rachel Wallace shot 50.0 percent from the field and hit a pair of threes to finish with a game-high 14 points, while Olivia Potter added a pair of threes and finished with 12 points with Katie Webb turning in 11.
 
Sa'Liesha Hunter added six points but triggered the offense to the tune of eight assists as SE finished with 16 as a team on 25 made shots.
 
The Storm shot 63.2 percent from the field as a team in the first quarter, hitting 12-of-19 overall and 4-of-8 from three-point range which offset a rough night in the other three frames, topping out at 30.2 percent over the final three quarters.
 
The Southeastern defense stepped up however and held RSU to 41.7 percent shooting or lower in all four quarters, including a game-low 18.2 percent in the third quarter.
 
Webb pulled down a team-high nine boards as the Storm finished with 45 rebounds on the night, just one behind the Hillcats. Emem David and Ariannah Kemp each added six rebounds, while Wallace chipped in five.
 
Wallace hit a three to open the game and Hunter would connect on a driving layup to open up a 5-0 lead to start the game.
 
RSU would answer and eventually close the gap to 10-9 at the 6:13 mark.
 
The Storm would finish the first quarter on a 19-7 run to open up a 29-16 lead at the first break.
 
Things were fairly even from that point on as the Hillcats would trim a point off the SE lead by holding an 11-10 edge in second quarter scoring to make the Storm lead 39-27 at the half.
 
Southeastern would pick up the pace a bit and take its largest lead of the night in the third quarter at 51-34 on a Kierra Davis layup with 1:03 to play as SE would outscore RSU 12-10 in the third quarter and take a 51-37 edge to the fourth.
 
The teams were evenly matched in the final frame as the Hillcats would three times trim the Storm lead to 10 points, but SE would go 8-for-8 at the free throw line over the final 1:14 to hold off a rally and take the 67-53 victory.