3/1/15 • By The Telegram Staff

BEATRICE -- The Raiders knew just what to expect out of Southeast Community College.

After all, the teams split their previous two matchups this season, which were decided by nine points combined.

"If you evaluate all three games, they were very competitive, very hard-fought," Central Community College head coach Jerry Drymon said. "In these games just a few plays is going to win you the game or lose you the game."

In Sunday's Region IX Tournament final, those few plays came late in the first half.

The Storm ran away late in the first half, ending the Raiders season with a 83-69 victory in Beatrice.

"The first half was back and forth and they had a run to end the half to take an eight-point lead," Drymon said. "We just had a few poor shots and some turnovers that was critical for us in that first half."

Southeast was able to hold a comfortable 10-point lead for most of the second half, Drymon said.

Though the Storm never put the game out of reach, the Raiders didn't get enough going offensively to threaten their lead.

Central went 26-for-65 from the field in the game.

"You're not going to beat many teams shooting that low of a percentage," Drymon said.

With two 6-foot-10 players, Southeast dominated the paint. The Storm grabbed 10 more rebounds than Central.

"We struggled to defend them and we didn't do a good job boxing out," Drymon said.

Rebounding, Drymon said, was Central's Achilles Heel this season.

When the Raiders were able to rebound, they'd put together a solid game, such as an 83-81 win over Southeast earlier in the season.

Snyder Cenecharles' 20 points and Altez Davis' 19 points led the Storm Sunday.

All five starters for Central scored in double digits, led by Tyrone Clayton's 15 points.

Shawn Robinson added 13 points, while Matthew McLeod and OJ Thok chipped in 12 points and Thomas Johnson had 11 points.

Central finished the year with a 7-24 record.

The Raiders came a long way, Drymon said, from their first collegiate game in November to the region final Sunday.

"We didn't turn the ball over a ton (this season) and we were a good free-throw shooting team," Drymon said. "You need those two things to be successful. With our schedule, we played a lot of teams above our level, but we were really competitive with the teams on our level. We began to figure out what we needed to do to be successful and we started to do that the last few games."

Sunday at Beatrice

Central (7-24) 32 37 - 69

Southeast (12-18) 40 41- 81

* CENTRAL - Matthew McLeod 12, Tyrone Clayton 15, OJ Thok 12, Shawn Robinson 13, Thomas Johnson 11, Connor Long 4, David Joachim 2.

* SOUTHEAST - John Swift 14, Noah Scott 3, Altez Davis 19, Snyder Cenecharles 20, Liam McRae 2, Londell Stephens 4, Tyrell Allen 3, Pabek Pabek 4, Rakeem Hicks 4, Tychicus Anderson 2, Josh Stroud 4, Maurice Young 2.

* 3-point field goals - Central 5 (Thok 2, McLeod 1, Robinson 1, Johnson 1, Southeast 8 (Swift 3, Cenecharles 3, Davis 1, Allen 1).