SE Defense Smothers Rival Tigers in 66-40 Win

DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern posted its best defensive effort against a Division II opponent this season, holding East Central to 40 points on 24.6 percent shooting en route to a 66-40 victory on Monday evening in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
 
The Savage Storm win their second-straight contest and improve to 9-10 overall and 7-6 in Great American conference play heading into a rematch with ECU on Feb. 3 at 5:30 p.m. in Ada, Okla.
 
"We're happy with it," said head coach Darin Grover of his team's defensive effort, "But make no mistake, they cooperated by missing some shots. I felt like if we could stay with them the whole time, they set a lot of down-screens and a lot of screens in general. But we've just got to stay with them and get a hand in their face. And you've got to hope they miss whenever you do that. And I thought that we did a good job of combining that and protecting the basket."
 
Kamryn Cantwell led the way for SE with a game-high 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting while also pulling down six rebounds.
 
Lauren Beason was the only other Storm player in double-figures as she finished with 12 points on the strength of three threes.
 
Chandler Kemp had a strong second half outing and finished with nine points while also dishing out a game-high five assists, and Kentoya Woods also added nine points with a pair of threes.
 
Briley Moon pulled down a team-high seven rebounds, while Cantwell, Beason, and Kemp each grabbed six as the Storm out-rebounded the Tigers 40-to-30.
 
ECU would take the early lead and Southeastern would tie the game at 7-7 before the Tigers ended the first quarter on a 9-3 run, including a buzzer beating three to take a 16-10 lead at the first quarter break.
 
The Storm defense would ratchet up the pressure in the second quarter and in doing so would prevent the Tigers from connecting on a field goal for the entire second quarter.
 
SE would tie the game at 18-18 on a Cantwell layup at the 7:06 mark of the second quarter and at the 4:18 mark a Grace Alverson three would give the Storm its first lead of the contest at 21-20.
 
The Storm finished the quarter on a 9-2 run, with ECU going 6-of-6 in the quarter from the free throw line to account for their six second-quarter points, and SE would lead 27-22 at the half.
 
Southeastern would score the first 10 points 0of the third quarter, with a Cantwell fastbreak bucket giving the Storm a 37-22 lead by the 6:51 mark, all while the defense continued to force ECU misses.
 
The Tigers would get a field goal at the 4:56 mark of the quarter, ending a 15:04 second run for the Storm defense of holding them without a bucket.
 
SE would push its lead out to 19 points before a late Tiger run closed the gap to 43-30 to end the third.
 
Southeastern would retake control in the fourth, opening the quarter on a 12-2 run to extend its lead out to 23 points by the 5:07 mark of the final frame.
 
The lead would never sink below 20 from that point on, with a Woods put-back in the final 10 seconds setting the final score of 66-40.