SE Drops Midyear Exhibition at UTSA

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Southeastern spread its scoring around with four players reaching double-figures, but it was not enough as the Savage Storm dropped a midseason exhibition contest to Division I Texas-San Antonio, 70-67, on Saturday afternoon in San Antonio, Texas.
 
The contest was an exhibition for SE but counted as a regular season contest for the Roadrunners, and the Storm will now be back in action on Jan. 3 when it hosts Arkansas Tech at 7:30 p.m. in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
 
Kellen Manek led the Southeastern scorers with 14 points with a pair of threes, while Jett Jobe and Adam Dworsky each added 11 points.  Kevin Buckingham rounded out the double-digit scorers with 10.
 
Dworsky also dished out four assists to lead the Storm, while Jobe and Buckingham had three each.
 
The Storm shot 40.6 percent for the contest, and despite building up a nine-point second half lead, struggled in the second 20 minutes, hitting 36.1 percent in the half.
 
SE also struggled in getting to the free throw line where it hit 2-of-2 shots, while UTSA kept itself in the game thanks to an 18-of-24 effort at the charity stripe.
 
Buckingham led SE on the glass with nine rebounds, while Kayo Goncalves followed up with seven off the bench.  Buckingham also speared the defense on with four steals.
 
Southeastern opened an early 4-1 lead on layups by Dworsky and DJ Henderson, but a 13-2 run by the Roadrunners would put the home team ahead 14-6 with 14:11 to go in the first half.
 
The Storm trailed by as many as nine points in the first half, but a 15-5 run would erase that deficit and give SE a 28-27 lead on a Jobe three with 4:43 to go in the half.
 
UTSA would regain the lead twice over the final four minutes, but a Jobe layup with three seconds to go in the first half would give Southeastern a 35-34 lead at the break.
 
After trading buckets out of the intermission, the Storm would build on its lead, going up 49-43 on a Dworsky jumper before the Roadrunners whittled away the advantage and took a 50-49 lead with 11:07 to play.
 
Southeastern would get a Buckingham layup to trigger an 11-1 run, capped by a Manek layup to give the Storm a 60-51 lead, its largest of the contest.
 
SE held tight to the lead until a pair of UTSA free throws with 1:39 to go would tie the game at 62-62.
 
A Manek jumper with 1:23 to go would give the Storm a 64-62 lead, but UTSA answered with a three and followed it up with a 3-of-4 effort at the line to open up a 68-64 lead with 18 seconds left.
 
A Jobe three with nine seconds to go would cut the deficit to 68-67, but the Roadrunners would hit both free throws and a last-second three by the Storm was off the mark, leading to a 70-67 loss.