Savage Storm Advance to Title Game with Win Over OBU

BARTLESVILLE, Okla. – Southeastern picked up its 10^th-straight win and earned its first berth in the Great American Conference Tournament Championship Game after an 87-68 win over Oklahoma Baptist in the semifinals on Saturday night in Bartlesville, Okla.
 
The win lifts the Savage Storm to 22-6 overall on the season and is the team's 10-th in-a-row and the 13^th out of the last 14 games.
 
SE will advance to the final to face top-seeded Southern Nazarene at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday afternoon.
 
"I thought we defended well," said head coach Kelly Grfeen, "Holding them to one shot most of the time. I thought Adam did a great job on Wade and then DJ came in and did the same thing. We didn't let him round the corner on us."
 
"Really proud of our resilience," he continued, "And I give Oklahoma Baptist a lot of credit. They are difficult to prepare for. They run a lot of different sets and screens.  They are physical inside and the score was not an indication of the type of game."
 
Adam Dworsky led the Storm with a 24 point effort, matching the GAC Tournament best put up by Markell Henderson in the 2018 tournament. He was 9-for-18 from the field and hit 3-of-3 from beyond the arc. He nearly wrapped up a double-double on the contest dishing out nine assists and chipped in five rebounds.
 
Kevin Buckingham added his 13^th double-double of the season with 19 points, hitting 8-of-13 from the floor, and pulling down a game-high 11 rebounds.
 
Kellen Manek finished the contest with 12 points, while Jett Jobe and Kayo Goncalves chipped in 11 each.
 
The Storm finished the contest shooting 55.7 percent from the field, including a 63.3 percent effort in the second half. SE also hit 11 threes, connecting on 47.8 percent of its shots from beyond the arc.
 
Dworsky's nine assists led all players, while Jobe handed out four and Buckingham added three as the Storm finished with 21 as a team.
 
Buckingham's 11 rebounds led all players, while Manek added six and Dworsky five as the Storm outrebounded OBU 37-to-27.
 
Dworsky put up 13 points in the first half on 6-of-11 shooting over the first 20 minutes, while Buckingham added nine points and six boards.
 
The Storm scored the first four points of the game on baskets by Jobe and Buckingham, but a layup and a three pointer from OBU would put them up 7-6.
 
A Manek bucket would regain the lead for the Storm briefly, but the Bison put together a 12-4 run to move out in front 19-12 at the 12:05 mark of the half.
 
A Dworsky layup would end that run and kick off a 9-2 Storm run that was capped by another Dworsky jumper to tie the game at 21-21 with 9:28 to go in the half.
 
OBU would again use a short run to take a 26-21 lead with 5:10 to play, but a Buckingham three-point play and a Dworsky three would give SE a 27-26 lead.
 
A Bison three would give them the lead again on the next possession, but Manek would connect on five straight points himself to trigger an 11-4 run to end the half and give the Storm a 38-33 lead at the break.
 
Southeastern opened the second half on a 10-2 run capped by a Buckingham layup in transition to extend the Storm lead to 48-35 just over four minutes into the second half.

The Bison would bounce back though, cutting the SE lead all the way back to five points at 52-47 with 12:41 to play.
 
The Storm answered with a Henderson jumper, followed by a Buckingham jumper and a Dworsky three to push the lead back out to 12 points.
 
OBU would cut into the advantage, closing to seven points three times, the last at 66-59 with 7:16 remaining.
 
With 6:52 to go Manek would connect on a bucket and trigger a 21-2 run capped by a layup from Anthony Palmer with 51 seconds left to take its largest lead of the game at 87-63.
 
OBUb would score the final five points to fashion he final of 87-68.