Rough Second Half Leads to SE Loss

WEATHERFORD, Okla. – Despite a 50 percent shooting effort on Thursday night Southeastern found itself on the short end of a 79-68 loss to Southwestern Oklahoma State in Weatherford, Okla.
 
The loss drops the Savage Storm to 10-15 overall on the season and 8-11 in Great American Conference play, thrusting them into the final home game of the season on Feb. 20 at 3 p.m. against Southern Nazarene in desperate need of a win to keep its hopes for the GAC Postseason Tournament.
 
SE is currently on the outside looking in holding the ninth-place spot, a game behind a tie for seventh between Arkansas Tech and Northwestern Oklahoma State.  Due to tiebreaker procedures nearly every scenario for the Storm making the postseason involves Southeastern winning two of its final three games and getting help from any of the four teams within two games ahead of them.
 
Sami Bzai came off the bench and turned in his best outing since the first week of February, posting 18 points on the strength of a 4-for-9 effort from the three point line.
 
Marti Fonolla led the starters in scoring with 11 points while Tyler Lonzie and DJ Henderson also added 11 points each off the bench.
 
The Storm held a 50.0-to-35.5 percent shooting edge over the Bulldogs, but the home team turned in a 20-for-29 free throw shooting effort while the Storm was just 10-of-17.
 
Bzai also handed out six assists as SE posted 16 as a team, but were plagued with 19 turnovers across from just six by SWOSU.
 
Lonzie turned in a game-high eight rebounds, however the Storm were killed on the glass overall by a 47-to-38 margin which was magnified on the offensive glass where the Bulldogs held a 20-to-3 edge, leading to a 20-1 scoring difference in second-chance points.
 
It was really a tale of two halves for the Storm as they would trade the lead back and forth early in the first half after knotting the score at 20-20 would use a pair of threes and a Henderson jumper to put together an 8-2 run and open up a 28-22 lead.
 
The Storm would eventually stretch that same run into a 15-4 stretch which allowed them to take a 35-24 lead on a Lonzie jumper with 4:44 to play in the first half.
 
SWOSU would chip away, but a Nathan Jackson layup with two seconds to go would give the Storm a 39-31 lead at the break.
 
The Bulldogs opened the second half on an 8-0 run to tie the game, but SE finally stopped the bleeding with a Bzai three at the 16:11 mark to hold a 42-39 lead.
 
SE would maintain its lead but never stretch it beyond three points until the Bulldogs used an 11-0 run to erase the three point Storm advantage and leave Southeastern in a 56-48 hole at the midway point of the second half.
 
The Storm would chip away, getting the gap to 63-61 on a Henderson jumper with 5:27 to play, but that was as close as it would get as SWOSU would outscore SE 16-7 over the final five minutes to fashion he 79-68 final score.