Buckingham Passes 2K, Storm Move to Semis

BARTLESVILLE, Okla. – Kevin Buckingham put up 29 points to lead a foursome of double-digit scorers as Southeastern opened its Great American Conference Tournament run with an 83-69 win over Southern Arkansas on Thursday afternoon in Bartlesville, Okla.
 
The Savage Storm improve to 23-7 overall on the season and will be back in action in the semifinals on March 7 against the winner of Henderson State and Arkansas-Monticello.
 
"First game is always tough," said head coach Kelly Green. "The second game is even tougher I know and it's kind of redundant to say so. I thought our guys showed some toughness in the second half. We battled. In the first half I thought we did a good job of getting the ball inside. The biggest thing I think we did throughout the game was holding them to one shot."
 
"It is an honor and a privilege to get to play basketball," said Buckingham. "For that number to be there, its great, it's an accomplishment, but I'm here to play basketball and I'm extremely happy to get to play with these teammates, and this coaching staff and everybody. It's been a lot of fun."
 
Buckingham finished the contest with 29 points on 12-of-20 shooting with a trio of threes. His point total was also enough to lift him past the 2,000 point plateau, becoming just the second player in GAC history and the fourth in Southeastern history to pass that bar. The last SE player to pass the mark was Dennis Rodman during the 1986 season.
 
He also added eight rebounds and handed out three assists.
 
Adam Dworsky hit 7-of-9 from the field and finished with 18 points and just shy of a double-double with a game-high nine assists.
 
Kellen Manek added 17 points on 5-of-9 shooting with two threes, while Bobby Johnson finished with 14 on a 5-of-7 shooting performance that included three threes.
 
Goncalves added nine rebounds, while Buckingham and Manek each had eight. The Storm also held a 38-to-30 edge on the glass, including pulling down 10 offensive boards.
 
SE finished the day shooting 55.4 percent for the contest, bolstered by a 68.2 percent effort in the second half.
 
Buckingham dropped 15 points in the first half on 6-of-12 shooting with a pair of threes, while Johnson hit 3-of-3 from beyond the arc to finish the half with nine points and Manek went 3-of-5 and posted eight points.
 
The teams trade buckets out of the gate, playing to an 11-11 tie by the 14:20 mark of the half.
 
The Storm would score the next five points after that tie to take a 16-11 lead and would twice get the lead back to five points before five-straight points from Didge Brown would knot the game at 20-20 with 9:34 to go in the first half.
 
Dworsky would drain a three for the Storm which was answered, but starting at the 7:37 mark of the half SE would connect on four-straight threes, two from Johnson, one from Goncalves, and one from Manek.
 
Manek would then tack on a jumper with 2:25 to go to give the Storm its largest lead of the half at 37-23.
 
SAU would score eight of the next 11 points but a Buckingham layup at the buzzer would give Southeastern a 42-31 lead at the half.
 
The Muleriders scored first in the second half, but the Storm would score the next seven points, three form Dworsky followed by back-to-back Buckingham layups to take a 49-33 lead with 16:05 to play in the half.
 
SE would eventually use an 11-4 run capped by a Johnson layup to stretch its lead to 60-39 with 13:42 to play.
 
However, the Muleriders would answer with a 7-0 run to close the gap to 14 points before a Manek three ended the run at the 10:05 mark.
 
SE would push the lead back to 19 points by the 8:31 mark and the lead would hover between 14 and 19 points until late SAU run would close the gap to 13 points in the final minute before a final Dworsky free throw would set the final at 83-69.