DURANT, Okla. (Nov. 16, 2019) – A look at the turnovers column of the stat sheet showed why Oklahoma Christian dropped its season opener on Saturday night at Southeastern Oklahoma State.

The Lady Eagles had 16 turnovers to seven for Southeastern, a big reason why the Savage Storm got off 14 more shots than did OC. That helped Southeastern pull away in the second half for a 90-66 win at Bloomer Sullivan Arena.

In OC's first game against Southeastern (2-0) since the 2012-13 season, OC junior guard Tyra Peck shattered her career scoring high with 25 points, nine more than she had at St. Martin's (Wash.) on Dec. 19, 2017. Peck went 8 of 13 from the field, including 4 of 6 from 3-point range. But only one other OC player – junior forward Katie Mayo – reached double figures, scoring 13 points.

Five players scored in double figures for Southeastern, led by Briley Moon and Katie Webb, who had 16 points each. The Savage Storm hit 33 of their 71 shots (46.5 percent), compared to 23 of 57 (40.4 percent) for the Lady Eagles and outrebounded OC 43-36, with 13 of those rebounds on the offensive end.

"Turnovers and offensive rebounds. They were shooting lights out and we weren't playing defense," OC coach Stephanie Findley said. "Their offense is constant motion, so you can get lost a lot and we got lost a lot. We were not very good tonight on defense, but credit them for running their offense and hitting shots.

"We just lost the ball too much when we were trying to get it inside and take advantage of our height. If you don't make a quick move, they have three people on you and we couldn't pass the ball out."

OC (0-1) led only in the early minutes, but the Lady Eagles kept the game close until well into the third quarter. Southeastern led 44-39 at halftime and was up 56-45 after a 3-pointer by Moon (who went 4 of 5 from behind the arc) midway through the third quarter.

The Lady Eagles answered with an 8-0 run that included 3-pointers from Peck and Connor Atkinson, the latter bringing OC within 56-53 at the 3:20 mark. But Southeastern scored the next 12 points and led 68-53 after a second-chance basket by Chandler Kemp with 9:38 left in the game. OC came no closer than 13 points the rest of the way.

"From the middle of the third quarter on, we just kind of disappeared," Findley said.

Kamryn Cantwell had 14 points, Kemp 13 and Logan Oestreich 10 for the Savage Storm. OC point guard Maddison Collyer flirted with a triple-double, finishing with eight points, a team-high nine rebounds and seven assists.

OC will play its home opener on Monday at 5:30 p.m. when the Lady Eagles host former Heartland Conference rival Newman (Kan.), which moved into the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association with the demise of the Heartland.