SE Sports
Matt Thomas, Sports Information Director
SHAWNEE – Adam Dworsky drained a buzzer-beating three to lift Southeastern to an 89-86 victory over Oklahoma Baptist on Thursday night in Shawnee, Okla.
The win lifts the Savage Storm to 7-6 overall on the season and 6-2 in Great American Conference play heading into a Saturday afternoon matchup with Southwestern Oklahoma State at 3 p.m. in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
Dworsky’s game-winner as time expired was the final move in a back-and-forth finish.
Just seven seconds before he had drained a pair of free throws to put SE up 86-83, and the Storm followed by fouling OBU’s Vladimir Nemcok who went to the line and hit his first before intentionally missing the second with four seconds to play when Chandler Rickey recorded the offensive tip in to improbably tie the game with four seconds left.
SE trailed for much of the second half, tying the contest a trio of times before A’Torey Everett gave the Storm its first lead in the half with a three-point play at the 7:10 mark at 72-71.
Southeastern would never lead by more than three points in the final five minutes.
A Kevin Buckingham layup at the 2:04 mark would put the Storm up and they would maintain that lead until the game was knotted at 86-86 with four second to go, setting up Dworsky’s heroics.
Markell Henderson led a foursome of double-digit scorers with 22 points, hitting 9-of-15 from the field, including four threes. Everett came off the bench to add 19 points with a pair of threes, with Dworsky hitting two threes of his own on his way to 12 points and James Donelan chipping in 10 points off the bench.
The Storm shot 45.2 percent overall from the floor and 40.0 percent from three, hitting 12-of-30, while going 11-for-11 at the free throw line.
Jett Jobe triggered the offense with a season-best nine assists as the Storm racked up 17 assists to just five turnovers.
Defensively, Everett and Buckingham led the way with six rebounds each, while Henderson chipped in five.
Southeastern scored first but OBU answered and would pull ahead with six-straight points.
SE would remain close until the Bison used a 15-4 run to open up a 28-14 lead midway through the first half.
Kevin Buckingham would end the slide with a tip in bucket that opened up a 10-0 run capped by a James Donelan basket to close the gap to 28-24 with 8:51 to go in the half.
Four points was as close as the Storm would close the gap in the first half as the Bison would hold a 43-39 lead at the break.