From SOSU Sports Information
RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – Despite neither team finding much offense on the evening, Southeastern found itself on the short end of a 49-45 score on Saturday in a road loss to Arkansas Tech in Russellville, Ark.
The loss drops the Savage Storm to 10-7 on the season and 6-5 in Great American Conference play.
Southeastern had a rough night shooting, hitting 32.7 percent from the floor, but it did hit eight threes as a team.
The Storm again found itself on the wrong end of a ridiculous free throw differential as SE was 3-of-4 from the charity stripe on the night, while the Wonder Boys took little advantage of their 24 free throw tries, hitting just nine.
Chris Roussell reached double figures again with 14 points on the night, but was the only player for SE to do so. He was 5-of-12 from the floor, but a noticeably better 4-of-8 from behind the arc.
Travis Timmons, Andris Misters and Steven Kohli each chipped in eight points.
Timmons and Misters dished out game-highs of four assists.
Kohli turned in the game’s only double-digit rebounding outing with 11 boards as the team finished tied with 36 rebound each.
SE scored first, but the teams traded buckets over the opening minutes of the first half with neither team extending its lead beyond one possession until the Storm got a three from Timmons and a layup from Oliveira to take a 13-8 advantage with 9:53 to play in the half.
ATU would tie the game at 13-13, but SE would jump out to five point leads twice more, with the last coming on an Antonio Worthy layup with 6:12 to play.
Unfortunately, those would be the last points the Storm would score in the half as the Wonder Boys finished the half on a 10-0 run to take a 25-20 lead at halftime.
The deficit would grow to eight points out of the gate in the second half, but a 17-2 run over the next seven minutes would swing the game back in SE’s favor by a 37-30 score after a Misters jumper.
Tech would answer with a scoring spurt of its own, knotting the game at 38-38 at the 9:18 mark.
A Kohli layup would give the Storm a 40-38 lead, but a Tyler Friedel three pointer would put ATU in front with 5:58 to play.
That edge would grow to six points before Roussell connected on a jumper and then later a three with 39 seconds left to trim the deficit to 46-45.
The Wonder boys would add a free throw with 36 seconds to play, followed by a pair of freebies with 13 seconds on the clock to push their lead to two possessions.
The Storm was unable to get a last-second three to fall and fell for the second-straight game on the road.
Matt Thomas is the Sports Information Director at Southeastern Oklahoma State University.