Green Tallies 100th Win at Southeastern

DURANT, Okla. – Kevin Buckingham turned in a season-high 32 points to help Kelly Green collect his 100^th victory as Southeastern head coach, downing Ouachita Baptist 83-74 on Thursday night in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
 
The win lifts the Savage Storm to 11-5 overall on the year and 7-5 in Great American Conference play, into a tie for fifth in the league standings with Henderson State, just a half-game out of fourth place.
 
Green celebrates his second milestone of the season after earning his 500^th win at all levels as a head coach in a win over Arlington Baptist.

"Anytime you do something like that it's obviously nice," said Green of his 100th victory at Southeastern. "It shows longevity and it shows that you've got good players. I've been fortunate to have very good players. Whenever I got here the cupbourd was far from bare. I was just talking about it today, you know Urald King, Chris Roussell, Carliss Robinson, some wonderful, character guys. We were able to bring in a few guys to go with them that have established some things. It's nice and it shows that you've been doing this a long time anytime you start hitting plateaus." 
 
"I was really proud of our guys," said Green of Thurdsday's outing. "We've gone through a little adversity with Adam [Dworsky] out. Jett didn't practice all week and had oral surgery on Monday and what do you say about him, playing 38 minutes so I guess practice is really overrated.  Al Ervin stepped up and I thought really played well and took care of the ball. He knocked down his free throws which was important."
 
Buckingham eclipsed all scorers on the night with a 32-point effort, hitting 12-of-19 from the field and going 5-of-6 from three-point range, including hitting his first four threes. It was his seventh double-double of the season as he hauled in a game-high 12 rebounds as well.
 
"He started things off great with a three pointer off the glass from about 25 feet," said Green of Buckingham's performance. "So I guess right there should have been a premonition of things to come for the rest of us that things were kind of going to be his night. Kevin is resilient, and he brings it."
 
He was joined in double figures by Al Ervin who also had a season-high with 17 points on 5-of-8 shooting with a 7-of-10 effort at the free throw line, while Kellen Manek added 11 points with a trio of threes.
 
Jobe finished with nine points but dished out a game-high eight rebounds, while Ervin handed out six with the duo combining on 14 of the team's 24 assists.
 
OBU would score first, but a Buckingham three would provide an answer on SE's first possession and the Storm would never trail, leading 98.9 percent of the contest.
 
Another Buckingham three at the 13:32 mark would give the Storm its first double-digit lead at 19-8.
 
The lead remained 11 points with 8:57 to go in the half when a 12-2 Tiger run would trim the SE advantage to 28-27 at the 4:59 mark of the half.
 
However, another Buckingham three would end the rally and preserve the Storm lead and SE would ultimately take a 40-36 lead into the locker room at halftime.
 
While the lead remained single digits early in the second half, the Storm kept OBU at arms-length before finally putting together a 7-1 run capped by a pair of Ervin free throws to go in front 63-52 with 8:07 to play.
 
Southeastern would ultimately push its lead out to as many at 16 points, the first time coming on a Jobe layup with 5:06 to play and the final time coming on a pair of Buckingham free throws with 2:05 to play.
 
The Tigers would close the game on an 8-1 run, but Southeastern would hold on for the 83-74 victory.