FT. SMITH, Ark. – Southeastern had a foursome of double-digit scorers, but saw Nebraska-Kearney pull away late in an 88-81 loss on Saturday afternoon in the Hampton Inn Thanksgiving Classic in Fort Smith, Ark.
The loss drops the Savage Storm to 2-4 on the season heading into a Nov. 30 matchup at Arkansas-Monticello.
Markell Henderson led the way for SE with 18 points, while Kevin Buckingham and Jett Jobe each had 15. Jobe hit 3-of-6 threes, while both were 5-of-8 from the floor overall. Myles Nesbitt turned in 13 points off the bench on 4-of-8 shooting.
Bobby Johnson dished out a team-best five assists.
Defensively, both Henderson and Nesbitt finished just shy of double-doubles as they hauled in a game-high nine rebounds each.
The Storm got out to a strong start, going up 9-2 on a Henderson jumper by the 16:25 mark.
SE would maintain the lead until the 9:57 mark when UNK would first knot the game at 18-18, and later take a 23-22 lead.
The Lopers would eventually take the lead and hold it until the Storm scored the final four points of the half, including a Nesbitt bucket at the buzzer to take a 40-39 lead at the break.
Early on in the second half neither team would lead by more than four points until a 7-0 run would put UNK up 65-59 at the 10:09 mark.
SE would close the gap back to one possession, eventually narrowing it to 80-79 with 1:11 to play.
Unfortunately, UNK would go 6-of-6 at the line in the final 1:05 to hold off the Storm rally and hand SE an 88-81 loss.
