SE Athletics
Matt Thomas, Sports Information Director
ALVA – No. 14/18 Southeastern shot 50.0 percent from beyond the arc and had four starters in double-figures as it shook off the rust of a two-week layoff with a 73-52 road win over Northwestern Oklahoma State on Saturday afternoon in Alva, Okla.
Sports presented by Indian Nation Wholesale.
The win moves the Savage Storm to 5-0 on the season and 3-0 in Great American Conference play with a week to prepare for a rematch of last season’s conference championship game as they will travel to Bethany, Okla., to take on Southern Nazarene on Dec. 14 in a game that will be streamed on ESPN3 as part of the NCAA Showcase.
“We were fortunate to get a win today without Adam or Kevin having good games,” said head coach Kelly Green. “Kellen and Kayo shot it extremely well. A’torey I thought was very solid defensively, but Adam and Kevin did not have the games we’re all used to seeing”
“Defensively I thought we were pretty good,” he continued, “Holding them to one shot and making them shoot over us which was our goal. Which was why we got out to our big lead and then they started scoring the ball a couple times. When we’re taking it out of the net we’re not near as good. We need to be taking the ball off the glass and going with it.”
Kayo Goncalves led all scorers with 18 points thanks to a 6-of-7 effort from three-point range, while Kevin Buckingham finished with 16 points, 12 of them in the second half, as did Kellen Manek.
Adam Dworsky rounded out the double-digit scorers with 11 but was held without a double-double for the first time this season, finishing with six assists.
Manek added five assist and the Storm finished with 17 as a team.
Buckingham, however, posted his first double-double of the year as he hauled in a game-high 13 rebounds, leading SE to a 42-to-29 advantage on the glass.
NWOSU scored the first bucket of the game, but a Manek jumper would answer and trigger a 15-0 run capped by a Goncalves three to take a 15-2 lead.
However, the Rangers would catch fire at that point and reel off a 19-5 run to take a 21-20 lead with 7:47 to play in the half.
Manek and Dworsky would answer with consecutive buckets to put SE back in front as the Storm scored the next five point to go ahead 25-21.
Southeastern would push its lead back to eight points on a pair of Manek free throws with 2:32 to go in the first half before settling on a 33-28 lead at the break.
The second half opened on a flurry as four of the first five buckets of the half were threes, two of them from Manek and the last from Buckingham to stretch the Storm lead to 42-30.
A Ranger answer would cut the lead to single digits, but a Buckingham layup would put it back to double-figures and trigger a 9-2 run capped by a Goncalves three to give SE a 51-35 lead.
NWOSU would close the gap once more, hitting a three with 10:18 to play to make the score 53-42, but that was as close as it would get.
The Storm answered with a Goncalves three and would outscore the Rangers 20-10 over the final 10 minutes to pull away with the 73-52 victory.
