SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Five players scored in double figures as Southeastern drained 15 threes as a team and picked up its second-straight victory away from home, downing St. Mary's 89-80 on Saturday night in San Antonio, Texas, in the finale of the St. Mary's Thanksgiving Classic.
The win improves the Savage Storm to 3-0 on the season heading into the Great American Conference opener at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 29 in Shawnee, Okla., against Oklahoma Baptist.
Kellen Manek led all scorers with a career-high 27 points on 8-of-16 shooting, including four threes and a 7-of-8 effort at the free throw line.
Jett Jobe finished next in line with 18 on the strength of a trio of threes and hitting 5-of-6 at the line, while
Kevin Buckingham turned in 13 points while shooting 4-of-5 from the field, including a 3-of-3 mark on threes.
Adam Dworsky finished with 10 points, while
Todd Dawkins came off the bench with 10 points as well.
Dworsky triggered the offense with five assists on the contest, while Jobe added four and Manek chipped in three and the team tallied 18 all together.
Buckingham led the way on the glass with nine rebounds, while
Kayo Goncalves chipped in five.
SE shot 50 percent from the field in the first half and 47.8 percent from three over that span, and survived a chilled second half to finish the night shooting 44.8 percent from the field and 42.9 percent from long range.
STMU scored first, but the Storm answered with eight-straight points, including threes from Henderson and Manek, and would never trail again in the contest.
A Buckingham three at the 16:18 mark would push the lead out to eight points and four minutes later a Jobe three would finally push that lead out to double-figures at 21-11.
The lead would reach 12 points and hover there until near the nine minute mark when STMU would cut the advantage back to single digits, eventually down to five points before a late Storm spurt was capped by a Jobe three with less than 10 seconds to go in the half to give SE a 50-40 lead at the break.
The Rattlers would threaten early in the second half, opening the frame with an 8-0 run to cut the Storm lead to just two points.
A Manek three would end the run and SE would start edging its lead back out, hitting double-figures again on a Manek jumper at the 10:52 mark of the half to go up 69-58.
The lead would reach 15 points, which is where it stood with 8:50 to play at 77-62 after a Jobe bucket.
The Rattlers would reel off a 7-0 run to cut SE's lead to single digits with five and a half minutes to play, but SE would again respond with a push to go up 83-71 with 1:43 to play after a Dworsky free throw.
STMU would drain its next three threes and close the gap to 85-80 with 29 seconds to play, but
Jett Jobe would go 4-of-4 at the free throw line in the final 19 seconds to preserve Southeastern's 89-80 win.
