Storm Smother Rival Tigers in 50-30 Victory

DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern put together its best defensive effort of the season and used it to pull away to a 50-30 victory over rival East Central on Thursday night in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
 
The Savage Storm improves to 8-15 overall and 4-13 in Great American Conference play, while the Tigers drop top 7-14 on the year and 3-14 in conference play.
 
SE put together a stifling defensive effort, holding ECU to a 19.0 percent shooting effort, and keeping them in single digits in three of the four quarters.
 
The 30 points allowed is the fewest the Storm have allowed in a game since holding Dallas Christian to 25 points on Nov. 9, 2018, and marks the fewest points scored by an opponent versus Southeastern since joining the GAC.
 
Grace Alverson led the Storm offense with 14 points, hitting 4-of-9 from the field with a pair of threes and adding a 4-of-5 performance at the charity stripe. She would also pull down five boards.
 
Kenzli Warden is next in line with 12 points on 5-of-11 shooting and picked up and put together her fourth double-double of the season with 10 boards.
 
Ashton Hackler and Caitlin Kobiske each finished just shy of double digits with seven points.
 
Holli Lindley led the Savage Storm with 13 rebounds and scored six points in today's outing.
 
The teams traded buckets out of the gate, but SE would reel off a 12-2 run over the next seven minutes to take a 15-5 lead following a Hackler layup.
 
ECU would end the run with a bucket, but the Storm would get the last word as Alverson would drain a three at the buzzer to take an 18-7 lead at the first quarter break.
 
Neither team would score for the first 3:32 of the second quarter, but SE would use the next 3:38 to outscore the Tigers 9-0, pushing the lead out to 27-7 with 3:00 to play in the half.
 
ECU would then close the half on an 11-2 run over the final three minutes to trim the Storm advantage to 29-18 at the half.
 
The edge would briefly dip to single digits early in the third quarter, but a Hackler three would answer and Southeastern would lead by as many as 14 in the frame before settling on a 37-24 lead heading to the final frame.
 
Once there, the Storm would maintain the pressure, with ECU closing to 12 points early in the fourth quarter, only to be outscored 11-3 over the final 8:07 as SE pulled away for the 50-30 victory.