Storm Fall at the Buzzer to OBU

DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern got 17 points from Neely Noel off the bench, but Oklahoma Baptist would connect on a bucket with a second to play and the Savage Storm would fall 74-72 on Thursday night in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
 
The loss drops the Savage Storm to 11-8 overall and 9-6 in conference play heading into a weekend road matchup with Southern Nazarene at 1 p.m. on Feb. 9 in Bethany, Okla.
 
"Honestly," said head coach Darin Grover, "I thought we really played average tonight from start to finish.  We actually shot a good percentage, but we had a ton of really open looks."
 
"Defensively we had two possessions late in the game that we gave them points in transition," he continued. "That cannot happen and expect to win, we also had two possessions in the second half where we gave up offensive rebounds that led to points. The game was still winnable though, if we hit 75% of our FT, which is the norm, we win."
 
Noel Came off the bench with 17 points with four threes to lead all scorers, while Katie Webb was next up with 14 followed by Briley Moon's 13, and Tracy Johnson finished with 12.
 
The Storm finished the contest shooting 43.6 percent from the field and hitting 39.5 percent from long range, but drifted from their season average at the free throw line, hitting 56.3 percent, or 9-of-16.
 
Tracy Johnson distributed the ball to the tune of nine assists, while Briley Moon handed out six and SE finished with 20 as a team.
 
Alix Robinson led the way on the glass with seven rebounds, while Cierra Rangel was next in line with four.
 
SE scored the first seven points of the game and still led by six points with 3:33 to go in the first quarter before the Bison rallied and would go up 20-17, with a Webb jumper closing the gap to 20-19 at the first break.
 
The Storm would push back in front early in the second quarter and took a 28-22 lead on a Noel three with 7:54 to go in the first half.
 
OBU would finish the quarter on a 14-5 run to take a 36-33 lead at the half.
 
The Storm would tie the game early in the third and the teams would and over the remainder of the quarter would trade two ties and eight lead changes, with a Johnson buzzer-beater form halfcourt to end the quarter closing the Storm deficit to 52-51.
 
The teams continued to trade the lead over the beginning of the fourth quarter until a Moon three would put SE up 63-59 with 6:07 to play.
 
OBU would score the next seven points to take a three point lead, but SE would claw back and take a 69-68 lead on a pair of Noel threes with 1:33 to play.
 
The Bison would follow with back-to-back buckets, before a Robinson three with 39 seconds to play knotted the game at 72-72.
 
Unfortunately, OBU would corral an offensive rebound after a missed shot late and Autumn Avina would hit a layup as time expired to hand SE the 74-72 loss.