DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern needed an extra five minutes to find a 99-91 overtime win over Northwestern Oklahoma State, led by a career-high night from
Ethan Wilkerson and
Chandler Dickinson.
Wilkerson led the game with 31 points on 12-of-14 shooting from the field and pulled down eight rebounds, while Dickinson recorded 24 points on 3-5 shooting from beyond the arc. SE as a team shot 58.6 percent from the field and converted 39.1 percent at the three-point line.
Santiago Camacho Gomez notched a double-double with 12 points and a team-high 13 rebounds, and the Storm would out-rebound the Rangers 43-29.
Ethan Scott rounded out the scoring with ten points, while
Jamal Drewery dished out a team-best seven assists.
The Storm opened the scoring to start the first half, but the Rangers were dialed in early from deep, as they made all three of their first three triples attempts to build an 11-4 gap. NWOSU stayed hot from the three-point line after a SE timeout and media break, knocking down two more to extend its lead to 20-9. Southeastern struggled to keep up with the pace set by the Ranger offense in the opening ten minutes, as the visitors extended their lead to 29-14.
SE began to chip into the Northwestern advantage through a
Tyler Long three-pointer, and four more points from Wilkerson made it 31-21. The two sides traded baskets from there, and the Rangers soon took a 45-30 lead after a 5-0 burst. Southeastern continued to battle in the final minutes of the period, as Dickinson would heat up, scoring seven straight points to help close out the half on a 9-0 run, down 45-39.
Dickinson stayed hot through the halftime break, scoring an early triple before making back-to-back baskets to slash the NWOSU lead to 49-47. The Rangers replied to the Storm's fast start with a run of scores to stretch their edge back to 60-51. SE soon found its footing again through a triple by Gomez, who was quickly followed by a three-pointer from Scott on an 8-0 run to make it a one-point game, 60-59.
Baskets began to fall for Scott after connecting on his first triple, as he knocked down two more to give Southeastern its first lead of the game, 67-66. Wilkerson took control of the offense over the next two and a half minutes, scoring eight points on a 10-2 run to grow the Storm's edge to 77-70. However, the blue and gold were soon under pressure from the Rangers, who closed the gap to one, 80-79, with 2:40 remaining, and would tie the game 84-all to send it to overtime.
Southeastern and Northwestern traded baskets to begin the overtime period, and a three-pointer from Gomez gave SE a 91-86 advantage. The blue and gold leaned on Drewery and Wilkerson over the next minute, as the two combined to extend the Southeastern lead to 95-89 with 55 seconds remaining. The Rangers would send the Storm to the free-throw line two more times, where they closed out the game 99-91.
The Storm (3-6, 2-1 GAC) hit the road on Saturday, Dec. 13 at 7:30 p.m., as they face nationally-ranked No. 23 Oklahoma Baptist in the Noble Complex.
