SE Downs Tigers on Senior Day

DURANT, Okla. – Kevin Buckingham and Adam Dworsky combined for 52 points as Southeastern shot 54.8 percent from the field en route to a 91-77 win over Ouachita Baptist on senior day in the regular season finale in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
 
The win lifts the Savage Storm to 22-7 overall on the year and 16-6 in Great American Conference play, earning the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament.
 
SE will square off with seventh-seeded Southern Arkansas at noon on March 5 in Bartlesville, Okla.
 
Saturday was also senior day for six Storm players who played in what was likely their final home game, those were Kevin Buckingham, Todd Dawkins, A'Torey Everett, Bobby Johnson, Myles Nesbitt, and Ziga Zatezic.
 
"They're a difficult team for us to play," said head coach Kelly Green. "There is a saying that the strong take from the weak, the quick take from the strong. We talked about that today, but the thing is the smart take from everyone. They've got the quickness over us so they had a chance to take that, so we've got to be smarter with our strength than they are with their quickness. And I thought we did a really good job down the stretch of that."
 
"It has been everything to me," said Buckingham when asked about his time at the University. "Coming in as a freshman straight from high school to playing college basketball.  A whole new team, whole new coaching staff, I owe everything to them for becoming the man I am and the basketball player I am. Coach Green getting on me in the good times and the bad times, I owe all of it to him and my teammates."
 
Buckingham turned in his fourth 30-point effort of the season, finishing with 31 on 12-of-22 shooting and was just shy of a double-double with nine rebounds while adding two assists, two blocks, and two steals.
 
Dworsky posted his third-straight 20-point effort, going 7-of-10 from the floor with a 3-for-4 effort from beyond the arc to finish with 21 points while adding five rebounds and two assists.
 
Kayo Goncalves chipped in 12 points on 4-of-8 shooting from three-point range, while Kellen Manek finished with 12 points and flirted with a triple double by handing out a game-high eight assists and pulling down seven boards.
 
The teams traded buckets out of the gate with the Storm eventually stretching out to an early 12-7 lead.
 
The early lead would peak at five points and the Tigers would twice tie the game before a 17-4 run capped by a Buckingham jumper would put the Storm ahead 37-24 with 4:09 to go in the first half.
 
The lead would eventually hit 16 points before a late run by OBU would make the score 45-34 in favor of the Storm at halftime.
 
Southeastern slowly edged its lead back out to 15 points by the 16:11 mark of the second half on a Manek layup, but OBU started chipping away, closing the gap to 63-51 with 12:25 to play.
 
From that point on a 14-2 OBU run would erase the Storm advantage and give the Tigers a 66-65 lead with 8:46 to play in the second half.
 
A Buckingham three would stop the bleeding, but Ouachita would answer and knot the game at 68-68.
 
SE would get the next four points to regain the lead and trigger a 14-2 run capped by a Dworsky free throw to take an 82-70 lead with 3:53 remaining.
 
The Storm lead would reach 16 points down the stretch before settling on the 91-77 final score.