SE WBB Rewind: Season of Ups and Downs

DURANT, Okla. – Just past the midway point of the conference schedule Southeastern women’s basketball was riding high on an eight-game winning streak that had the team at 13-2 on the season and sitting atop the league with a 10-1 record. However, every season has its ups and downs and this season would be no different. 

SE opened its second Arkansas road swing with a 70-46 victory over Ouachita Baptist and were riding high as winners of eight-straight and led the league by two games over second place. 

“I think any time you are winning,” said head coach Darin Grover, “You feel good about things, you feel like you can’t lose another game.  The opposite is also true, when you start losing it feels so hard to win the next one. During that win streak we had a number of games that we had different players step up and shoot it well to keep the streak alive, that is what good teams do.” 

The tail end of that road trip saw the team’s winning streak come to an end at Henderson State.

Despite rallying from 15 down in the second half to get within one point in the fourth quarter SE was unable to complete the comeback at Henderson State, falling 77-72. 
 
Katie Webb turned in a season-high 31 points in the effort, reaching the 30-point mark for the second time this season, and rounded out the contest with a double-double by hauling in 11 rebounds. Webb finished 13-of-26 from the floor. 
 
Kamryn Cantwell put up 18 points on the strength of a 12-for-12 effort from the free throw line. 
 
The Storm had their second-lowest shooting performance overall and its worst shooting effort from three-point range of the season, hitting 2-of-14 from long range. 

“First off,” said Grover, “That was a game where HSU had a game plan to allow Katie to get her points, and stop everyone else from shooting the three,  so we had shot after shot around the basket that we simply just didn’t finish, so basically their game plan worked.  We didn’t play particularly poorly, we just didn’t finish those shots.  It was disappointing to lose, especially that way, unfortunately we had two really tough opponents coming to our place the next week, so we needed to get refocused quickly.” 

SE would then return home for return match ups against Harding and Arkansas Tech.

“We didn’t do anything different than we always do as far as preparation,” said Grover discussing the outlook heading into games at home versus HU and ATU. “Having two great teams coming in doesn’t help much when you are coming off of a loss.  We beat Harding and Tech badly at their places, so we knew they would be ready to play, and as well coached teams do they were ready to play.”

For the first time in the season Southeastern suffered back-to-back losses, dropping a 71-59 final against the Bisons. 
 
The loss is the first of the season at home and dipped the Savage Storm to 13-4 overall on the year and 10-3 in Great American Conference play. 
 
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.

Unfortunately, the woes would continue two days later as the Storm suffered dry spells in the second and fourth quarters and was unable to overcome the cold shooting, watching a six-point lead evaporate in the fourth quarter of a 70-62 loss to Arkansas tech. 
 
The loss was the third-straight for the Savage Storm who then slipped into a four-way tie for first in the league standings. 

Webb finished the game with 20 points, her sixth 20-point effort in the last 10 games. She finished the game shooting better than 50 percent from the floor and hit 2-of-3 from beyond the arc. 
 
She was the only Storm players in double figures through as Logan Oestreich and Johnson each finished with nine. 

“In sports,” said Grover, “Everyone loves a winner, then once you lose, everyone else has their opinions and criticisms.  I just tried to make sure our team wasn’t listening to all of that noise coming from the outside.  The things we were doing when we won will work again, you really just have to focus on doing those things better.  It also helps to make shots, which we were not doing during this losing streak.  It is amazing how all things are better if shots go down.”

SE would snap its losing skid the following week with as Webb dropped 19 points to power Southeastern to an 86-52 victory over Oklahoma Baptist and in the process moved into the number two spot on the Savage Storm career scoring list.

She lifts her career scoring total to 1,461 points, passing Jessica Hocker's mark of 1,448 which had ranked second since the 2007-08 season. Webb now trails SE Hall of Famer Crystal Robinson's career total of 3,023 points. 
 
"She has been fantastic for her five years here," said Grover of Webb following the contest. "Not only a fantastic player, but a fantastic person. And then as far as being a student goes, everybody on campus knows who Katie Webb is and she's going to go on and be a huge success in life, not because she's a good basketball player. I don't think there's any correlation there. I think she's going to be a huge success in life because of the things she's done to become a great basketball player."

Two days later the Storm would pick up its second straight, this one a revenge win over Southern Nazarene but not without some late-game drama. 

Webb connected on a put back with 0.3 seconds to play to lift Southeastern to a 63-60 victory over SNU. 
 
With the game tied at 60-60 and time ticking down under five seconds a Johnson three would careen long where Webb would control the board and get the put back, drawing a foul in the process. 
 
After a review the shot would count and Webb stepped to the free throw line, hitting her and-one opportunity. 
 
After a timeout allowed SNU to advance the ball, the Crimson Storm was unable to get a shot off with three-tenths on the clock, preserving the 63-60 SE win. 

“Our team responded the way championship level teams do,” said Grover. “We won on the road against OBU, and then come home and win against one of the best defensive teams in the conference.  The SNU was a special win for one because of the way it ended win Katie’s tip in at the buzzer, but more so because our team continued to fight even though our team really wasn’t playing as well as we knew we could.  It is SO hard to win consistently at this level, you have to really appreciate every win.” 

Unfortunately, the streak would not reach three games. Made worse by who the loss came against.

It was a tale of two halves for Southeastern as 53.6 percent shooting first half turned into a 23.1 percent second half effort in a 77-65 loss at East Central in Ada, Okla. 

Webb and Moon each put up 20-point efforts in the loss, with Webb finishing with 25 for her ninth 20-plus point outing of the year while Moon's 20 points was her third such outing. 

“It always stings harder losing to ECU,” said Grover, We just haven’t had much success at their place at all.  We really played well and shot well in the first half of that game, their coaching staff made some defensive adjustments at half time that disrupted our offense, and as importantly, ECU came out and hit shots.  ECU had struggled through most of the year, but mostly that was just because they weren’t hitting their shots, to close out the year I would argue they were one of the hottest teams in the league, including that second half.”

Kamryn Cantwell led a foursome of double-digit scorers against Northwestern State as the Savage Storm got back in the win column with a 67-61 over Northwestern Oklahoma State. 
 
The win moved Savage Storm to 16-6 overall on the season and 13-5 in Great American conference play, and coupled with a loss by Harding the same day moved SE back into a tie for first place while also clinching a berth in the conference tournament. 
 
Cantwell turned in one of her best all-around efforts of the season with 22 points, a season-high nine rebounds, and six assists. She finished the contest shooting 8-of-13 from the floor with a 2-of-3 mark form long range. 

“Every win is good,” said Grover, “And it is even better when you can come back after losing one.  NWOSU usually plays a zone that is difficult to play against.  We came out in that game and shot really well in the first half, to start the second half they switched to a man, and it really disrupted our rhythm.  But as I said before, every win is good, and when the conference race is coming town to the last couple of weeks, it is important to accumulate as many wins as you can get.” 

With two weeks remaining in the regular season the Storm had moved back into a tie for first, check back in next week for the final installment of the SE WBB Rewind.