KINGSVILLE, Texas – The Southeastern men's basketball program earned its first win of the season on the road at Texas A&M- Kingsville with a 78-69 victory on Saturday afternoon.
SE (1-3, 0-0 GAC) shot 47.5 percent from the field and were 13-36 from beyond the arc for a 36.1 percent shooting mark. The Savage Storm outrebounded the Javelinas 46-35, while TAMKU held the advantage at the foul line with 19 makes to SE's nine.
Deondre Dunn led all scorers with 25 points on 6-of-9 shooting from deep, while
Augusto Toledo went 4-8 at the three-point line for 14 points.
Ethan Wilkerson paced the side at the glass with ten rebounds and passed around a team-high five assists.
SE and TAMKU traded baskets in the first four minutes of the half, with Southeastern ahead 7-5, and the lead soon grew to 14-9 after
Ethan Scott tallied five of the blue and gold's next seven points. The Javelinas had an answer to the Storm, building a quick 5-0 run to tie the game 14-14 with 10:56 remaining in the first half.
Dunn began to heat up, knocking down a jumper and three-pointer to push the Storm back in front, and moments later, a triple by Toledo extended the gap to 22-19. Dunn and Toledo took control over the next three minutes, as the two combined to spark a 14-2 run, with both connecting from deep two more times each to stretch the edge to 36-23. Toledo would drain his fourth triple of the half ahead of the final buzzer to give SE a 40-28 advantage.
The second half began with Wilkerson and
Santiago Camacho Gomez finding the basket for the Storm, before Dunn found his range from deep again to give Southeastern a 12-point advantage, 49-37. From there, the two sides traded baskets, and the Storm would fall into a four-minute scoring drought, which allowed TAMKU to cut the blue and gold's lead down to five, 58-53.
Jamal Drewery connected on a three-pointer to get the scoring going again for Southeastern in the final half of the period. Dunn took control of the game over the next three minutes, scoring eight consecutive points, including two triples to help stretch the lead back to double figures. Down the stretch, SE closed out the game with three triples to the foul line to secure a 78-69 victory.
Southeastern (1-3, 0-0 GAC) closes out its non-conference slate next time out at the SNU Conference Challenge on November 28-29, where the Storm will face Rogers State and Cameron.
