Turnovers Haunt Storm in Monday-Night Loss

DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern found itself hamstrung by turnovers in the first and third quarters and were unable to pull together a late rally in a 64-50 loss to Southwestern Oklahoma State on Monday night in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
 
The loss drops the Savage Storm to 9-12 overall and 7-8 in Great American Conference play.
 
"Wasn't a surprise," said head coach Darin Grover when asked about SWOSU's approach to guarding SE. "That's what they did to us the first time. That's what they've done to other people. It wasn't a surprise, but we acted like it was a surprise. We told them 'baseline drive, they're going to double you,' "post players, they're going to double you. Sure enough, we'd catch it in the post and try to do a counter spin and they were right there on our blind side."
 
Kamryn Cantwell led the way on offense for the Storm with 16 points, shooting 50.0 percent from the field, while also pulling down a team-high eight rebounds and handing out four assists.
 
Grace Alverson came off the bench with 12 points, connecting on four threes.
 
Caitlin Kobiske was next in line with eight points, while Briley Moon and Kentoya Woods added five apiece.
 
Woods also hauled in seven rebounds.
 
After trading buckets out of the gate, the Bulldogs would put together a 7-0 run to push the early lead to 9-3.  SE would answer with six-straight points and a Cantwell free throw with 5:25 to go in the first quarter would knot the game at 9-9.
 
However, SWOSU would finish the quarter on an 8-0 run to take a 17-9 lead after one quarter.
 
The Storm would close to within a possession at 17-14 after a 5-0 run capped by a Kobiske bucket to open the second, but the Bulldogs would respond and push the lead out to 12 points before the teams settled on a 31-21 score at the half in favor of SWOSU.
 
SE was unable to make up any ground in the third quarter as the Bulldogs turned five Storm turnovers into a 10-0 advantage in points off turnovers in the quarter, pushing its lead to 53-33 after three frames.
 
Southeastern would mount its biggest comeback of the game in the fourth as it used an 11-1 run to close the deficit to 58-48 with 1:56 to play, but that was as close as it would get as SWOSU would hold on for the 64-50 win.