Storm See Lead Fade Late in Loss

DURANT, Okla. – Kamryn Cantwell collected her first double-double of the season, but it was not enough to lift Southeastern in a 57-49 loss in a slugfest versus Henderson State on Thursday night in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
 
The loss drops the Savage Storm to 10-15 overall on the season and 8-11 in Great American Conference play heading into Saturday's 1 p.m. matchup with Ouachita Baptist.
 
"Defensive mistakes," said head coach Darin Grover of the final minutes of the contest. "And when we made those mistakes, they cashed in. In the fourth they had at least two situations where our post had to slide over and help, and then we need to slide over and help her and I know we missed two of those which there was an and-one and there was a layup, and I think we might have missed three of them. Defensive mistakes and we didn't cover them up, and they cashed in."
 
Cantwell posted a game-high 13 points and led the team on the boards with 11 rebounds on her way to her first double-double of the season.
 
Briley Moon matched her 13 points and added seven rebounds, while Chandler Kemp was right on her heels with 12 points and seven boards.
 
Neither team shot well, with SE suffering a slightly colder night, hitting 29.0 percent overall and 17.6 percent from beyond the arc.
 
The game got off to a slow start with HSU eventually pushing out to a five point lead by the midway point of the first quarter, but the Storm would score the only four points either team would score over the final 4:47 of the frame and trailed 11-10 at the first break.
 
The Reddies would hold off SE for most of the second quarter despite the Storm continuing to stay close before a pair of Cantwell free throws with 2:49 to play in the half would put Southeastern in front, but HSU would get two free throws of their own with 2:01 to play and SE trailed 20-19 at the half.
 
SE would take the lead on a Kemp bucket to open the second half and the teams would trade the advantage until the Storm  put together a 6-0 run capped by another Kemp bucket to take a 30-25 lead with 3:34 to play in the third.
 
HSU would end that run, but Southeastern would come right back with the next eight points, ending with a pair of Moon free throws to give the Storm its largest lead of the game at 38-28 with 13 seconds to play before the Reddies scored before the buzzer to close the gap to 38-30 after three quarters.
 
After HSU cut the SE lead to five points, the Storm would respond with a Cantwell bucket and a Moon three to once again reach a 10 point advantage at 43-33 with 8:06 to play.
 
The Southeastern offense would go cold from that point on as the Reddies closed the game on a 24-6 run as the Storm would fall 57-49.