Noel Career-High Helps Lift SE to Road Win

ALVA, Okla. – No. 20 Southeastern got a career-high 18 points off the bench from Neely Noel as the Savage Storm jumped back into Great American Conference play with a 68-54 road win over Northwestern Oklahoma State on Saturday afternoon in Alva, Okla.
 
The win lifts SE to 5-1 overall on the year and 3-0 in GAC play with a week to prepare for its Dec. 14 road contest against Southern Nazarene in Bethany, Okla., in a game that will be streamed on ESPN3 as part of the NCAA Showcase.
 
"We wanted to try to control Kalea King and then Bailey Brown," said head coach Darin Grover. "They do a good job of penetrating and Bailey is just opportunistic, so we just tried to control how many times we helped off of her and our kids really did a good job of executing that.
 
"Bailed us out," said Grover of Noel's effort off the bench. "She's the difference in the first half. It's a 12-point game, she bailed us out and she was our player of the game. Between her and Katie that was tough, but Neely came in and did a great job of just relaxing and knocking down those shots."
 
Webb finished as the game's high scorer with 19 points, while Noel came off the bench and finished with her career-high 18 points on the strength of six threes.
 
Kamryn Cantwell chipped in 11 points, while Briley Moon turned in eight.
 
Cantwell and Chandler Kemp each finished with four assists as the team handed out 18 on the contest.
 
Kemp finished with a team-high 10 rebounds while Webb and Cantwell added six each and the Storm held an edge on the glass, 43-to-39.
 
Noel connected on four first-half threes and led all scorers at the midway point with 12 points, while Webb shot 50 percent on her way to 10 points.
 
The offenses for both teams started slow, with Webb breaking the scoreless tie just over three minutes into the game with a jumper.
 
NWOSU would answer with a bucket but the Storm would then use a 15-1 run capped by a Noel three to open up a 17-3 lead on their way to a 22-7 lead after one quarter.
 
SE would expand its lead out to 19 points at the 6:54 mark of the second quarter on a Moon jumper, but the Rangers would finish the second quarter on a 14-7 run to trim the Storm lead to 38-26 at halftime.
 
The teams traded runs in the third quarter, first with the Rangers using a 9-0 run to cut the Southeastern lead to seven points, but a Logan Oestreich three would push it back to 10 points and end the run.
 
SE would eventually use a 6-0 run to push its lead back to 16 points before taking a 58-44 lead into the fourth quarter.
 
NWOSU would score the first four points of the final frame before the Storm got threes from Noel and Moon to bookend a Webb jumper on an 8-0 run to stretch the lead to 66-48 with 6:28 to play.
 
The Rangers would score six of the last eight points as that was all the points scored over the final six minutes and the Storm would pick up the 68-54 win.