Men's Basketball Season Ends in the GAC Tournament Quarterfinals

FORT SMITH, Ark. – Southeastern falls in its quarterfinal matchup against No. 3 seed Harding 77-59 at the Northside Arena. The Savage Storm ends the season 9-20 overall and with an 8-14 GAC record.
 
Ethan Wilkerson led the scoring for the Storm with 26 points on 10-of-17 shooting and pulled down five rebounds. SE shot 44.7 percent from the field and went 4-17 at the three-point line on a 23.5 percent clip. Augusto Toledo chipped in nine points and led the team with seven rebounds, while Jamal Drewery passed around four assists and recorded six points and two steals.  
 
The two sides struggled to find the basket early, with the first points falling at the 16:27 mark, as Harding led 3-0. Points soon began to fall for both sides, and the Storm would lean on Wilkerson, who scored six straight points for the blue and gold to trail 9-8. SE soon took the lead behind four unanswered points, and not long after, a three-pointer by Toledo kept Southeastern ahead 15-13.
 
From there, the two sides traded baskets, but the Bisons got their offense going with a 5-0 run to grab the lead, but a quick triple from Wilkerson pushed SE back in front 23-22. HU continued to score in bunches, rattling off six straight points to help them take a 31-25 advantage into the halftime break.
 
The second half featured a faster start, with Southeastern and Harding going back and forth, trading baskets. The gap to the Bisons soon grew to double figures, but a run of six straight points by the Storm cut the HU's lead to three, 51-48. However, the blue and gold cooled off over the next four minutes, allowing Harding to build a 14-0 run to push its advantage to 65-48.
 
SE and HU went back to matching each other in scoring, with the Bisons holding their edge 71-55. Harding would control the final two minutes of the game to win 77-59.