SE Topples No. 3 Harding, 75-65

DURANT, Okla. – Four Southeastern players reached double-figures as Southeastern opened Great American Conference play with a 75-65 victory over No. 3 Harding on Thursday night in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
 
The win lifts the Savage Storm to 2-1 on the year and 1-0 in GAC play heading into a 1 p.m. matchup with Arkansas Tech on Saturday afternoon, also in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
 
Katie Webb paced all scorers on the night with 23 points, including a 14-of-14 effort from the free throw line.
 
She was joined in double-digits by Alix Robinson who drained four threes en route to a 16 point outing, while Ariannah Kemp went 5-of-8 and turned in 12 points with Sa'Liesha Hunter adding 11.
 
Robinson led the way with six assists, while Webb and Hunter had three each to help the Storm rack up 17 as a team.
 
SE shot 43.5 percent from the floor for the game, including a 50.0 percent effort in the second half and a 44.4 percent night from long range.
 
Webb hauled in a team-best eight rebounds, while Emem David added six.
 
Southeastern scored the first five points of the game and led by as many as 10 points in the first quarter before the Bisons closed the gap to a 16-11 lead at the first break.
 
HU would cut the lead to one point at 19-18 with 5:34 to go in the half, but SE would get six straight and eventually lead by nine before settling on a 30-26 halftime advantage.
 
The Storm lead would stretch out to as many as eight again in the third, but HU would chip away and twice cut it to one point before Southeastern took a 49-45 lead into the final frame.
 
Harding took its first lead of the game early in the fourth quarter and would twice lead by a point, the last time coming at 52-51 with 7:32 remaining.
 
At that point back-to-back Kemp layups followed by a Webb jumper would put SE up 57-52 with 6:02 to play.
 
The lead would extend back to double digits on a Robinson three with 3:11 to play and reach its largest point at 75-63 on a pair of Hunter free throws with 13 seconds left before asettling on a 75-65 win.