SE Women Suffer First Home Loss of the Season

DURANT, Okla. – For the first time this season Southeastern suffered back-to-back losses after dropping a 71-59 final against Harding on Thursday night in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
 
The loss is the first of the season at home and dips the Savage Storm to 13-4 overall on the year and 10-3 in Great American Conference play and cuts its lead in the conference standings down to one game heading into a Saturday meeting with Arkansas Tech at 1 p.m. in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
 
Katie Webb finished the night with 16 points on 50 percent shooting and just missed a double-double with nine rebounds.
 
She was the team's only double-digit scorer, with Tracy Johnson next in line with nine points, all in the first half, while Briley Moon followed with seven.
 
The Storm held an advantage in overall shooting percentage, 43.6 percent to 40.3 percent for the Bisons, but it was from beyond the arc that HU hurt the Storm, hitting 10 threes to the normally long-range SE's five.
 
Johnson was 3-for-3 on threes in the first half and had a game-high nine points at the break while Webb added six.
 
SE shot 44.4 percent in the first half, including a 5-of-6 effort to close out the second quarter, and hit five threes.
 
The Storm took an early 4-2 lead, but the Bisons scored the next six points and SE would be playing catch up for the rest of the half, tying the game at 16-16 on a Moon three pointer late in the first quarter before falling behind 19-16 at the quarter break.
 
HU opened the second quarter on a 12-3 run to take a 31-19 lead, but a Webb layup at the 3:33 mark triggered a 12-4 run to end the second quarter capped by a Johnson three to make the halftime deficit 35-31.
 
Southeastern picked up where it left off to start the third quarter, reeling off the first six points, taking a 37-35 lead on a Logan Oestreich jumper with 7:26 to go in the quarter.
 
The teams would trade the lead with the Storm going up 41-38 with 4:53 to play in the third on a Webb jumper and would maintain that three-point edge until the Bisons finished the third on a 4-0 run to take a 46-45 lead at the final quarter break.
 
SE tied the game at 46-46 early on a Webb free throw to open the fourth quarter but a 7-0 run by HU would push its lead to 53-46 with 7:56 to play.
 
SE would close the gap to 58-53 on a Moon layup with 5:30 to play, but the Bisons would finish the game on a 13-5 run to fashion the final score of 71-59.