The Southeastern Panthers win their first game of the season, Saturday but almost saw the game slip away. The Westfall Mustangs rallied from 17 points down in the third quarter, cutting the deficit to one point on two occasions late, before falling the Panthers 61-55.
Southeastern led 36-19 early in the third quarter, but the Mustangs made 6/13 three-pointers the rest of the way to cut the score to 50-49 and later 54-53, but could never grab the lead as they missed several shots that would have given them the lead.
The foul line also paid off for Southeastern down the stretch, with Lane Ruby, Aaron Gillum and Reece Wheeler hitting key free throws to ice the win.
The Panthers had four players in double figures, with Lane Ruby leading the way with 18 points. Aaron Gillum had 14. Both Aarick Hill and Reece Wheeler had double-doubles with 15 points/13 rebounds for Hill and 11 points/10 rebounds for Wheeler.
Westfall was led by Jay Wyman's 17 points and 14 from Trent Hampton.
Southeastern shot 17/42 from the field- including 5/8 from the arc for 40%, while going 22/26 at the foul line. Westfall was 19/51 from the field- including 8/22 from the arc for 37%. They added 9/14 at the charity stripe.
The Panthers held a 31-24 rebounding advantage. SE had 14 turnovers and Westfall 12.
Southeastern improves to (1-1/1-3) and Westfall drops to (1-1/1-2).
Listen to the game's play-by-play from 94 Country WKKJ on our podcast link below...