SE Athletics
Matt Thomas
DURANT – Briley Moon and Kamryn Cantwellcombined for 53 points and Southeastern shot 52.2 percent from the field on its way to an 85-66 victory over Southern Arkansas on Saturday afternoon in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
The win is the fourth in-a-row for the Savage Storm, lifting them to a 7-7 record overall and a 5-3 mark in Great American Conference play.
“First off, they play a style of play that’s difficult to play against when they’re 94-feet pressing the whole game basically on makes and misses,” head coach Darin Grover said. “It’s a hard thing to play against. We committed in the offseason to working on that every single day and hopefully you could see it.”
Moon was 5-of-10 from beyond the arc on her way to a game-high 27 points, and just missed a double-double with nine rebounds while also snagging four steals and dishing out a pair of assists.
Cantwell nearly matched Moon with 26 points, going 12-of-17 from the floor, while dishing out a game-high five assists
Chandler Kemp reached the double-digit mark as well, finishing with 11 on 5-of-8 shooting.
Caitlin Kobiske and Lauren Beason were each next in line with seven points apiece.
Moon’s nine board led the way for the Storm, while Kobiske hauled in five, followed by four each from Haiden Williams and Kentoya Woods.
Southeastern finished the contest at 52.2 percent from the field after hitting 23-of-34 shots in the second half and going 6-of-10 from three point range.
A Moon three opened play, but SE would find itself down 7-3 just over two minutes into play.
SE would connect on back-to-back buckets to knot the game and neither team would stretch beyond a two-point advantage, with the Storm taking a 17-16 lead into the first quarter break.
Southeastern would push its lead out to 23-18 just under five minutes into the slow moving second quarter, but SAU would use a 5-0 run to tie the game at 23-23 with 4:57 to play in the half.
The Muleriders would push ahead to a 29-25 lead by the 1:19 mark, but Moon and Cantwell would score the final two buckets of the half to tie the game at 29-29.
The teams continued to trade the lead through the first half of the third quarter before Moon connected on a three with 4:28 to play in the third to take a 42-38 lead.
SAU would close the gap and twice take a one-point lead before the Storm closed the quarter with seven of the last nine points to take a 58-52 lead into the final quarter.
Southern Arkansas would close the gap to three points early in the fourth quarter, but an 11-2 run by SE in response would push the lead to 71-59 on a Cantwell bucket with 6:03 remaining
SE would only pull away from there, stretching its lead to a game-best 19 points which would hold to be the final margin at 85-66.