Storm Men Tripped Up in Home Loss

DURANT, Okla. – Vadim Clanet drained five threes and finished with 18 points, but it was not enough to hold off Southern Nazarene in a 68-60 loss on Saturday afternoon in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
 
With the loss, the Savage Storm fall to 1-3 overall and in Great American Conference Western Division play heading into a Jan. 21 matchup with Southwestern Oklahoma State back home in Bloomer Sullivan Arena at 7:30 p.m.
 
"Their size and their length," said Head Coach Kelly Green, "And they switch all ball screens and we had a hard time of getting in gaps and attacking. We didn't do a good job of that and they did a good job of walling us off. When Adam would come off a ball screen they would have someone with size there on him most of the time and he was having a harder time seeing over the top basically."
 
Clanet finished the afternoon hitting 5-of-10 threes and shooting 50.0 percent overall from the floor to post a game-high 18 points
 
Adam Dworsky just missed out on a third-straight double-double as he put up 12 points and handed out a game-high nine rebounds.
 
Clanet was also led the way on the boards for SE with seven rebounds.
 
SE got off to a slow start, falling behind 11-3 by the 16:38 mark before a Markeith Williams bucket followed by a Clanet layup closed the gap to four points.
 
SNU would slowly push its lead out, reaching the high mark of 23-11 with 9:14 to play in the first half.
 
A pair of RJ Weeks free throws would kick off a 14-1 run that was capped by a Clanet three to put SE up 25-24 with 6:46 to go in the half.
 
The teams closed out the half trading the lead back-and-forth before a three with 51 seconds to go by the Crimson Storm would leave SE down 33-30 at halftime.
 
Back-to-back buckets from Dworsky and Bobby Johnson would put the Storm ahead 35-33 early in the second half and the lead would hit three points with 16:08 to play after a Clanet three.
 
SNU would answer and regain the lead before another Johnson three would tie the game at 41-41 with 12:14 remaining.
 
The Crimson Storm would score the next five points to reagent he lead, but another Southeastern rally capped by a Weeks three-point play would tie the game at 47-47.
 
SNU would score th3e next six points, however, eventually pushing its lead out to 10 points before late buckets by Clanet and Jaedaun Slack would close the gap to the final of 68-60.