DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern had a trio of double-digit scorers, including a pair of seniors on senior night, en route to a 70-53 victory over Northwestern Oklahoma State in the regular-season finale in Bloomer Sullivan Arena on Saturday night.
The win lifts the Savage Storm to 13-14 overall on the year and 11-11 in Great American Conference play and will head into the postseason tournament as the No. 5 seed and face Harding at 5:45 p.m. on March 2 in Bartlesville, Okla.
Courtney Brady led all scorers with 17 points, including a trio of threes, while seniors
Sa'Liesha Hunter and
Emem David added 15 and 12 points, respectively, in the final home games of their careers.
Hunter and
Alix Robinson each dished out five assists, while Brady turned in four as the Storm passed out 18 helpers as a team.
David also finished with a double-double after hauling in a team-best 10 rebounds, while
Ariannah Kemp hauled in seven in the effort.
David scored the game's first two buckets, but NWOSU would use a 7-0 run to end the first quarter and put the Storm in a 19-13 hole after one quarter.
That deficit would grow to seven points before Southeastern put together a 10-0 run bookended by threes form Hunter and
Alix Robinson to regain the lead at 26-23 with 6:23 to go in the half.
The Rangers would tie the game with 5:56 to go but starting with another Hunter three SE would score seven of the last 10 points of the half and take a 33-29 lead at halftime.
The Storm would pick up the pace in the third quarter after NWOSU cut the lead to two points SE would get seven-straight capped by a Robinson three to push the edge out to 46-37 with 4:08 to go in the third.
That was part of a larger push as Southeastern outscored the Rangers 13-3 over the final 6:57 of the quarter, capped by a pair of Hunter free throws with one second to go to make the lead 52-40 heading to the fourth.
The Storm continued its push into the fourth quarter and after back-to-back threes form Robinson and
Tracy Johnson SE had mounted a 60-42 lead midway through the fourth.
The lead would get to 20 points on a pair of Hunter free throws with just under three minutes to play and cap at 70-49 on a
Neely Noel free throw with 47 seconds remaining before SE settled on a 70-53 victory.
