Moon Powers Storm Past OBU

DURANT, Okla. – Briley Moon drained seven threes and posted a season-high 25 points to lead Southeastern to a 65-55 victory over Oklahoma Baptist on Saturday afternoon in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
 
The win lifts the Savage Storm to 4-3 on the year overall and in Great American Conference Western Division play heading into a Monday night rematch with rival East Central at 5:30 p.m. in Ada, Okla.
 
"It's no secret she's been struggling shooting the ball so far, said head coach Darin Grover of Moon's performance. "It's understandable. You've got Christmas break and she comes back and is immediately in quarantine. You're talking almost 30 days of being away from basketball and shooting is a rhythm thing and she just hasn't shot as well as we know she can. She is the best shooter I've ever coached and that's saying something, we've had some really good shooters come through here and in junior college. We knew it was eventually going to come back and she shot well in the first half and then came back in the second half and shot well."
 
Moon finished the night three points shy of her career high by shooting 9-of-15 overall while draining 7-of-9 from beyond the arc.
 
Kamryn Cantwell joined her in double-figures with 13 on 4-of-8 shooting, while Katie Branam added a 4-of-6 effort and finished with 11.
 
Chandler Kemp dished out a game-high six assists on the contest as the Storm finished with 18 as a team, while Cantwell pulled down a team-leading eight rebounds.
 
It was a tale of two halves shooting the ball for SE who finished the first-half shooting 35.7 percent overall and from long range before closing out the second 20 minutes with a 59.1 percent effort and hitting 57.1 percent from beyond the arc.
 
Southeastern got off to a slow start and OBU capitalized, eventually leading the contest for 22 minutes.
 
That started early as the Bison scored the first five points while the Storm were scoreless for the first 4:38 of the game before a Moon three got them on the board.
 
The Storm would tie the game twice and take a brief 10-7 lead on another Moon three with 2:41 to play in the quarter, but OBU closed out the frame on a 10-3 run to lead 17-13 after one quarter.
 
The deficit would reach seven points in the second quarter before an SE rally would cut the gap to 24-22 on a Cantwell jumper with 3:22 remaining.
 
SE would get it to two points again with under a minute to play in the half on a Haiden Williams three, but OBU answered with a three of their own to take a 30-25 lead at the half.
 
The Storm chipped away from the start of the third quarter, with a Branam bucket giving SE its first lead since the first quarter at 33-32 with 6:54 to go in the third.
 
The teams would trade buckets at that point, fighting to a 38-38 tie before a Moon three broke it as part of a 10-0 run to end the third quarter and put Southeastern in front 48-38 heading to the fourth.
 
That run would continue into the final frame with the Storm scoring the first six points to reach its biggest lead of the day at 54-38 with 7:19 to play.
 
OBU would whittle the SE advantage back to 11 points with 5:41 to play but back-to-back Branam buckets would stop that rally and SE would hold on to pick up the 65-55 win.