Storm Men End Season With Loss at HU

SEARCY, Ark. – DJ Henderson turned in a career-high 26 points off the bench, but Southeastern was unable to carry the momentum of its first half performance in into the second half as Harding pulled away late in the Savage Storm's 79-67 loss to end the 2015-16 season on Saturday afternoon in Searcy, Ark.
 
SE finishes the year at 11-17 overall and 9-13 in Great American Conference play, finishing tied for eighth, but missing the postseason tournament for the first time since the formation of the league after losing the tiebreaker with Northwestern Oklahoma State.
 
Henderson turned in his fourth double-digit outing and his first 20-point game of the season as he led all scorers with his 26 points while shooting 10-of-14 form the field and 4-of-7 from three point range.
 
Marti Fonolla was the only other player in double-figures for the Storm as he turned in 12 points while shooting over 50 percent from the field and hitting a pair of threes.
 
The next three scorers were all off the bench as Kyle Roberts and Tyler Lonzie added eight apiece and Anton Cook chipped in seven.
 
Southeastern's bench was very productive, turning in 49 of the team's 67 points.
 
The Storm shot 44.1 percent for the game, but it was a tale of two halves as the offense hit at a 51.7 percent clip over the first 20 minutes while dipping to 36.7 percent over the final 20.
 
Cook added seven assists to his seven points as SE tallied 16 assists as a team on the contest.
 
Fonolla led the team on the glass with a game-high eight rebounds, while Roberts finished with seven.
 
After a slow start to the game in which Harding opened up an 11 point lead with just over nine minutes to play, the Storm got moving.
 
Henderson started the run with a layup off a Cook pass and a Sami Bzai layup off a steal would cap a 6-0 spurt, and ultimately after back-to-back threes from Henderson and Roberts SE would tally a 17-3 run to take a 28-25 lead with 4:25 to play.
 
Southeastern would score 12 of the last 17 points in the half and when Henderson hit a three with 16 seconds to go the Storm capped a nine minute run in which they outscored the home team by a 29-8 margin to take a 40-30 lead at halftime.
 
A Fonolla bucket right out of the halftime break would give the Storm a 12 point lead and after trading buckets with the Bisons SE held a 44-33 lead with 18:36 to play.
 
A 10-0 HU run would erase the SE lead and close the edge to just one point with 14:52 remaining.
 
A pair of Lonzie free throws and a Henderon layup would hold off the Bisons for the moment with the storm leading 48-45 with 13:49 to go.
 
Another 10-0 run by Harding would leave SE in a seven point hole with just over 12 minutes to play, but the Storm found its answer with a 9-0 run of its own capped by a Henderson three to regain a 57-55 lead.
 
The teams traded the lead twice more with a Henderson jumper giving Southeastern a 61-60 lead with 7:12 to play.
 
At that point HU would put together an 11-2 run to push its lead to eight points, the Storm would end the run and cut the deficit back to six points on a pair of Henderson free throws.
 
Unfortunately, the Bisons would end the game on an 8-2 run to hand SE a 79-67 loss.