From SOSU Sports Information
DURANT, Okla. – Four players reached double-figures for Southeastern and the Savage Storm held off a pesky Southern Nazarene team to pick up its 10th win of the season, 82-78, on Saturday night in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
The win lifts SE to 10-5 overall on the year and 6-3 in the Great American Conference, while dropping SNU to 9-7 and 4-6 in league play.
Southeastern’s Chris Roussell. Photo courtesy SOSU Sports Information Department.
Southeastern will be back on the court on Jan. 24 when it travels up the road to Ada, Okla., to face rival East Central at 7:30 p.m.
The Storm got another impressive outing from Chris Roussell who turned in his second-straight 20-point performance and his third of the year. He has also scored in double-digits in all 15 games this season.
He was joined in double-figures by three others as Mateus Oliveira pitched in 15, Steven Kohli added 14 and Travis Timmons finished with 13.
Andris Misters and Andis Malahovskis each added eight points as well.
The SE offense was sharp for most of the night, hitting 51.8 percent from the field on 29-of-56 shooting that included a 57.1 percent effort from three point range, hitting 8-of-14.
That was bolstered by crisp passing as the Storm dished out 24 assists on 29 made buckets.
Misters led SE’s passers on the night with seven assists, while Timmons dished out six and Quinton Threadgill came off the bench to hand out five.
SNU held a slight 36-to-32 edge in the rebounding, with Kohli leading the way for SE with eight boards and Roussell right behind at seven.
The teams matched each other in points in the paint with 36 each, but SE picked up the only real advantage in specialty stats with a 21-12 edge in points off turnovers.
The Storm would jump out to a quick 5-0 lead and push it to a 10-2 edge after a Timmons’ three pointer with 16:35 to play in the first half.
SNU would close the gap to three points, but SE would answer and quickly push it back to an eight-point lead.
The Crimson Storm would push back again and take its first lead of the game at 20-19 with 10:42 to play in the half.
Their lead would grow to as many as six points before an 8-0 run would put SE back in front 28-27 with 7:07 to play.
SNU would again jump ahead, this time by four points, but Southeastern would again answer with a 9-2 run to end the half with a 39-36 lead.
The second half was just as tight as the first with SE h9olding its lead until a pair of SNU ties would preface the Crimson Storm taking its first lead of the second half at 50-49 with 15:25 to play.
The teams would trade buckets, but SNU would push its lead back out to three points.
At that point an 11-2 Savage Storm run capped by a Kohli layup would give SE a 65-59 edge with 7:36 to play.
SNU would whittle away at the lead, tying the game at 68-68 with 5:47 to play and again at 76-76 with 1:41 to play.
SE would never relinquish the lead, however, with a Roussell three pointer breaking the final tie with 1:20 to play and when Misters hit a pair of free throws with four seconds to play the 82-78 SE win was set.
Matt Thomas is the Sports Information Director at Southeastern Oklahoma State University.