SE Athletics
Matt Thomas
ALVA – Brennen Burns drained a baseline jumper with three-tenths of a second on the clock to lift Southeastern to a 95-93 road victory 0ver Northwestern Oklahoma State in the regular-season finale on Saturday afternoon in Alva, Okla.
Sports presented by Indian Nation Wholesale.
The win pushes the Savage Storm record to 18-9 overall on the season and 15-7 in Great American Conference play.
Burns hit 9-of-14 shots overall and 7-of-9 at the free throw line to finish with a team-high 26 points, with the biggest coming in the final second to lift SE to a win.
Kody Clouet would reach the 20-point mark as well after hitting 11-of-11 at the free throw line and going 4-of-9 from the floor. He would also complete a double-double by grabbing a game-high 11 rebounds.
Jett Sternberger nearly made for a third 20-poin t sorer after hitting a pair of threes on his wat to 19 points while shooting 50 percent overall from the floor.
Robert Briley came off the bench to add 10 points, while Kyle Leslie and RJ Weeks each finished with nine.
Leslie matched the game high in boards with 11, while Briley added seven rebounds.
Burns and Clouet would lead the Storm with four assists apiece.
The teams would trade buckets following the tip with NWOSU taking an early 9-8 lead before Southeastern put together a 9-0 run capped by a Briley layup with 11:39 to play in the first half, taking a 17-9 lead.
The Storm would keep the Rangers at arms length for much of the first half, even pushing the lead to 39-29 on a Leslie bucket with 2:41 remaining in the half.
NWOSU would close the gap to six points, but the Storm would again push the lead to double figures before eventually heading to the half with a 43-35 lead.
The Rangers would come out of the halftime break firing, going on a 15-5 run to take a 50-48 lead by the 16:49 mark of the second half.
That lead would reach three points twice before back-to-back threes form Burns and Clouet would flip the script to a 59-56 Storm lead.
NWOSU would claw back to a tie, but a 9-2 run would see SE push its advantage to 70-63 with 9:34 to play.
The Storm lead would reach as many as eight points before a 10-1 run would see the Rangers again regain the lead, this time at 77-76 with 6:16 to play.
Northwestern would eventually take a two-possession lead at 89-85 with 2:16 to play, but a pair of Sternberger free throws and a Clouet bucket would knot the game with under two minutes remaining.
NWOSU would regain the lead once more, but a Burns free throw that was followed by a Sternberger three would give Southeastern a two-point edge with 32 seconds remaining.
The Rangers would come back down and knot the game at 93-93 with 16 seconds to play, setting up a final shot opportunity for the Storm which Burns would take advantage of, hitting baseline jumper with under a second remaining to secure the 95-93 win for Southeastern.