SE Knocks off League-Leading UAM

DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern put five players in double-figures and shot 52.4 percent from the field for the game to pick up an 83-78 victory over league-leading Arkansas-Monticello on Thursday night in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
 
The win lifts the Savage Storm to 11-3 overall on the season and 5-2 in Great American Conference play while knocking UAM out of first place and into a tie with SE, East Central and Henderson State for the top spot in the league standings.
 
The Storm will be back in action on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. when they host Southern Arkansas in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
 
"What they did was they kept getting to the paint," said head coach Kelly Green. "They just kept driving the ball and getting to the lane over and over. They had 26 points in the lane in the first half and that's one thing we talked to our guys about. We had to rebound the ball, but we had to keep them out of the paint."
 
"We're not a great one-on-one team," Green continued, "on offense or on defense. So we've got to have team defense and we've got to make sure we have people in gaps that are getting in help and once people start driving, we weren't reacting to people driving to the paint."
 
"I thought A'Torey Everett kind of got us going early," he said. "On the offensive end, but he set the tone defensively with KJ Lesure. KJ is one of the best point guards in the league and A'Torey really did a nice job on him. KJ didn't have his normal night and he and Bobby Johnson did a great job of defending him."
 
Kevin Buckingham posted a game-high 27 points, reaching the 20-point plateau for the eighth time this season, doing so on 12-of-19 shooting.
 
Adam Dworsky turned in his sixth double-double of the season, finishing with 13 points while handing out a game-high 12 assists. It also marks his eighth double-digit assists outing of the season.
 
Kellen Manek was next in line with 12 points, while A'Torey Everett and Bobby Johnson each turned in 11.
 
SE finished with 24 assists as a team for the night while shooting 52.4 percent from the field as a team for the contest.
 
Buckingham and Kayo Goncalves led the way on the boards with nine rebounds each, while Manek finished with eight.
 
Defensively Buckingham blocked a pair of shots and also snagged three steals.
 
The teams traded buckets out of the gate, but SE would break a 7-7 tie with a 19-2 run capped by a Dworsky jumper which gave SE a 26-9 lead with 12:40 to go in the first half.
 
The Boll Weevils would answer right back with a 20-3 run to erase the Storm lead and knot the game at 29-29 with 7:18 to go in the half.
 
After trading buckets, UAM would eventually use a 6-0 run to take a six point lead, and eventually a late Buckingham layup would cut the Weevil lead to 43-40 at halftime.
 
Southeastern came out firing to open the second half, with an Everett three capping a 7-0 run to regain the lead at 47-43.
 
UAM would close the gap and eventually retake the lead, going ahead 57-53 with 12:47 to go in the second half.
 
A Vadim Clanet three would trigger a 9-1 run capped by a Dworsky layup to give SE a 62-58 lead with 10:21 remaining.
 
The Storm would hold the Weevils at arms-length, twice stretching the lead to nine points, the last time coming at 74-64 with 5:39 to play.
 
UAM would make a push and make the game a one-possession contest with 27 seconds left at 81-78, but a Buckingham layup with 16 seconds left followed by a missed three by UAM would seal the 83-78 Southeastern victory.