Buckingham's 46 Powers SE to Win

HONOLULU, Hi. – No. 21/22 Southeastern got a career-high 46 points from Kevin Buckingham and shook off Thursday's defeat with an impressive 88-68 victory over Alaska-Anchorage on Friday night in game two of the Hoops in Hawaii Classic in Honolulu, Hi.
 
The win lifts the Savage Storm to 7-2 on the season heading into the Classic finale on Saturday when they face Colorado Mines at Midnight central time.
 
Buckingham's performance set and flirted with multiple records. His 19 made field goals is a GAC record, while his 46 points is tied with former SE standout Anton Cook for the second-best scoring game in GAC history, two points behind Cook's record performance of 48 points.
 
He finished the contest hitting 19-of-31 from the field to lead all scorers.
 
Kayo Goncalves was next in line with 14 points, hitting 4-of-5 from beyond the arc, while Adam Dworsky turned in 12 points powered by a 6-of-6 effort at the free throw line.
 
Dworsky and Kellen Manek each dished out seven assists to pace all players while the Storm finished with 16 assists as a team.
 
Southeastern held a 39-to-24 edge on the glass as a team, led by right boards from Buckingham, while Goncalves and Al Ervin added seven apiece.
 
Southeastern shot a lights-out 61.3 percent in the first half and hit 6-of-11 from three-point range on its way to shooting 59.3 percent from the field for the contest.
 
Buckingham posted 21 first-half points to pace the Storm who exploded out of the gate with the game's first nine points before pulling out to a 27-8 lead following a pair of Dworsky free throws with 10:36 to go in the first half.
 
AA would cut he gap to 16 points, but a 16-5 run by the Storm capped by a Buckingham jumper would push SE out to a 52-25 lead, its largest of the game.
 
The Seawolves put together an 11-2 run to close the gap in the waning moments, but a Buckingham jumper with 1:02 to go would give the Storm a 56-36 lead at halftime.
 
Southeastern would push the lead out to 24 points, but AA would put together run and cut the Storm advantage down to 15 points with 5:42 to play.
 
SE would answer with back-to-back Buckingham buckets to end the threat and the Storm would pick up an 86-66 victory.