SE Athletics
Matt Thomas
DURANT – Southeastern’s defense held Arkansas-Monticello to a 28.3 percent shooting effort while Briley Moon posted 19 points to lead a trio of double-digit Scorers en route to a 69-50 Savage Storm victory on Thursday night in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
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The win is the team’s third-straight and lifts SE to 6-7 overall on the season and 4-3 in Great American Conference play heading into a Saturday matchup against Southern Arkansas at 1 p.m. back in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
“They’re concentrating on Briley and Kam,” said head coach Darin Grover when asked wbout the performance of freshmen Lauren Beason and Caitlin Kobiske, “Trying to take them out of it. Those two did a great job of finding those openings in the first half. It was good, and we got off to a big enough lead where it was kind of not I doubt after the first half.”
Moon connected on a season-high five threes in the contest and finished the night with 19 points along with eight rebounds and a season-best five steals.
Kentoya Woods came off the bench to provide 11 points on a 50.0 percent shooting effort, while Beason turned in 10 points and matched Moon’s game-high of eight rebounds.
Caitlin Kobiske finished with eight points, while Kamryn Cantwell put up seven and dished out a game-best five assists.
SE built its advantage in the second quarter where it shot 52.9 percent overall and hit 3-of-3 from beyond the arc, going on to shoot 38.8 percent overall for the game.
It was the defense that proved stout over the first 20 minutes, holding UAM to a combined 6-of-29 shooting effort in the first half, including a 3-of-11 mark from long range.
Beason opened the game with a three and the Storm never trailed in the contest, and were only tied once as UAM answered that game opening three with one of its own.
Kobiske and Beason would then connect on back-to-back buckets and SE would push out to a five-point lead before settling on a 14-11 lead after one quarter.
The Cotton Blossoms would close the gap to 16-14 early in the second half. But Southeastern would mount a 19-2 run over the final 8:23 of the second quarter to mount a 35-16 lead at the half, after holding UAM to five second quarter points.
SE would maintain its lead, though the Blossoms would trim it to as close as 13 points in the third quarter before a Cantwell three gave SE a 51-35 lead at the end of three quarter.
UAM would come out in the fourth quarter and use a 5-0 run to get the Storm edge down to 51-40, but Beason would connect on a pair of free throws and a layup to push the lead back to 15 points, and by the 3:26 mark a Kobiske layup would stake SE to a 61-40 lead, its largest of the game.
Southeastern would go on to pick up the 69-50 victory.