RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – Tyler Corley turned in a 20-point performance, leading a cast of four Wonder Boys in double figures, while Andrew Guillory and DeChriston McKinney grabbed 12 rebounds apiece, but the Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys basketball team (15-12, 10-11 Great American Conference) was unable to overcome a potent offensive attack by Southeastern Oklahoma (11-16, 9-12), falling 78-64 to the Savage Storm on Thursday night at Tucker Coliseum. 
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HOW IT HAPPENED?

• The Wonder Boys controlled the pace early, opening up an eight-point (21-13) lead with 13:41 to play in the opening half.
• The Savage Storm cut Tech's lead to two (24-22) just under three minutes later, and knotted the game at 28-28 with 7:34 to go until the half.
• Southeastern claimed its first lead of the game (32-31) with 5:25 to play in the half on a layup by Sami Bzai, kick-starting an 8-0 run that saw the Savage Storm lead jump to six (37-31) with 3:43 to go.
• Southeastern's seven-point halftime lead (40-33) represented its largest lead of the contest to that point.
• The Savage Storm held Tech at arm's length through the first six minutes of the half, pushing ahead by nine (47-38) with 14:07 to play.
• The Wonder Boys rallied and pulled to within two (49-47) on a Freddy Lee 3-pointer with 12:18 to play.
• Southeastern pushed ahead again, jumping its lead into double digits (63-53) with 4:52 remaining, and continued to grow its lead to as many as 17 (78-61) in the final minute of the game.

NOTABLES

• Guillory (16 points), Jerry Owens (11 points) and Lee (10 points) joined Corley in double figures.
• Tech committed just nine turnovers on the contest.
• Southeastern outshot Tech 49.0 to 37.5 percent, and held a 72.4 percent (21-of-29) to 52.9 percent (9-of-17) advantage from the charity stripe.
• The Savage Storm held a 24-16 advantage in points in the paint, a 9-8 advantage in points off turnovers, a 14-12 advantage in second-chance points, and a 4-2 advantage in fast-break points.
• With the Wonder Boys sitting in seventh place, one half-game ahead of both Southeastern and Northwestern Oklahoma, Tech's postseason fate remains unsettled. A win by Tech or a loss by either SE or NWOSU on Saturday (SE plays Harding, NWOSU is at HSU) would punch Tech's ticket to Bartlesville. If Tech loses and both teams win, there would be a three-way tie for seventh place and at least a two-way tie for first between ECU and Harding (Ouachita hosts SWOSU and could conceivably push a first-place tie into three-way territory).

COACH KLINE SAYS

• On the team's shooting woes – "The first half I think we got the shots we wanted and just weren't making them. They did a good job of switching their defenses up and keeping us off balance. It was a tale of two halves. Our defense was poor in the first half and I thought it was pretty good in the second half. When we cut it to two in the second half and I thought 'okay, here we go…' but then I saw we were 9-of-17 from the free-throw line. When you're behind, getting to the line is a good way to come back because you can score when the clock is stopped… I thought we would play better, but we didn't. We'll go to work tonight, stay up and watch film and look forward to Saturday."
• On the defensive schemes Southeastern uses – "We had to simplify because of that. Give them a ton of credit, they kept us off balance, and we weren't able to run the stuff we usually run; and when we got opportunities we didn't take advantage of them. They came in here with a good game plan and they executed."

NEXT UP

• The Wonder Boys conclude the 2015-16 regular season on Saturday, Feb. 27, hosting East Central. Tip-off is set for 3 p.m.