SE Women's Basketball Second in GAC Preseason Poll

DURANT, Okla. – Following a run to the Great American Conference Tournament finals a year ago, the 2026-27 Southeastern women's basketball team has been picked to finish second in the GAC Preseason Poll released on Thursday.
 
The Savage Storm garnered a pair of first place votes and tallied 108 points in the poll, trailing only Harding who picked up 120 points and the other 10 first-place nods.
 
SE finished ahead of southwestern Oklahoma State who was third with 87 points in the poll, followed by Northwestern Oklahoma State, with Henderson State and Arkansas Tech rounding out the top six.
 
Southern Nazarene checks in seventh, with East Central in eighth and Oklahoma Baptist in ninth. Southern Arkansas, Ouachita Baptist, and Arkansas-Monticello round out the poll.
 
Southeastern is coming off an 18-13 season with a 13-9 mark in league play that saw the team turn the corner from a 3-9 start to go 13-3 over the final 16 games of the regular season, followed by a run to the finals that included wins over the No. 4 seed and the No. 1 seed before seeing its season end with a loss in the finals.
 
The Storm returns four players who saw starting action in 10-or-more games, including GAC Freshman of the Year Tori Kilburn and Kenzli Warden who earned second team Al-GAC recognition a year ago.
 
Southeastern returns 79 percent of its scoring from last season, with its top four scorers coming back paced by Kilburn's 19.9 ppg and Warden's 16.4 per outing. Kilburn ranked third in the conference in scoring while Warden was seventh.
 
The Storm ranked fifth in the conference in scoring as a team last season and fourth in scoring margin, with its margin jumping to second in the league over the final 19 games of the a season as the team was second in shooting percentage at 41.4 percent over that span.
 
They are joined by returners Mackenzie Espinosa and Akiera Hawk who were third and fourth, respectively, on the team in scoring a season ago with 6.8 ppg and 6.4 ppg, while Halli Hyatt returns with starting experience after putting up 2.7 ppg.
 
Southeastern welcomes six newcomers to the roster, with one transfer in Alona Cooper-Rochovitz from Seminole State and five freshmen.
 
The Storm open the 2026-27 season with a home contest versus Texas-Dallas on Nov. 9 at 5:30 p.m. in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.