Southeastern Stunned at the Buzzer vs. ATU

DURANT, Okla. – Despite a career-high 23 points from senior Darius Harris, it was a buzzer-beating three from Arkansas Tech that stunned the home crowd on senior night as Southeastern fell 77-76 on Saturday afternoon in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
 
The loss drops SE to 13-13 overall and 9-9 in Great American Conference play, dropping them into a tie with the Wonder Boys for fifth and still in need of a win or a Henderson State loss to secure a trip to Bartlesville, Okla., for the GAC Tournament.
 
The Storm will get that opportunity in the home finale against East Central on Feb. 26 at 7:30 p.m. before closing the regular season with a trip to Southwestern Oklahoma, State on Feb. 28.
 
SE led by 12 points with 5:59 to play in the contest, but ATU would score six straight to cut that lead to 68-62 with 4:05 remaining.
 
The game then became a free throw contest for the Storm as Anton Cook hit a pair, but the Wonder Boys would answer with a DJ Jethroe three-point play to cut SE's edge to five points with 2:55 to go.
 
Clarence Willard, who would finish the game with a triple-double on 17 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists, would hit the next two buckets for ATU and cut the Storm lead to 70-69 with 1:53 to play.
 
Cook would hit 1-of-2 free throws and Sami Bzai would grab a rebound on the defensive end, drawing a foul and hitting a pair of free throws to make the score 73-69 with 1:01 to play
 
However, another Willard jumper would trim the lead to two points, but a pair of Harris free throws would stretch it back to 75-71 with 26 seconds to go.
 
Tyler Friedel would then connect on a three for the Wonder Boys to close the gap to one point with five seconds left, and a foul on the inbound would send Bzai to the line with three ticks on the clock.
 
There he would hit 1-of-2 and after the make Willard would take the inbounds pass and sprint just past midcourt where he sunk a dagger into SE's hopes with a three to give ATU a 77-76 win.
 
Harris' 23 points led four Storm players in double-digits, with Anton Cook adding 15 off the bench, while Bzai and Taylor Smaller each added 13.
 
Southeastern was very efficient on offense, shooting 50.0 percent for the game as a team, including a 60 percent effort in the second half.
 
Bzai led the team in assists, dishing out seven, while Cook added five, Harris chipped in four and Smaller handed out three. The team matched its conference-best assists total for the season with 22 as a team.
 
Harris just missed his double-double with nine rebounds, while Antonio Worthy added eight.
 
SE trailed for the first nine minutes of the game before a Cook three at the 10:58 mark gave the team its first lead at 17-16.
 
The Storm would lead by as many as four points before a late 6-0 run gave ATU a 30-28 lead at halftime.
 
SE would trail early in the second half as well until a Harris three with 14:03 to play gave them a 47-45 lead.
 
After trading buckets the Storm would reel off an 11-0 run to take a double digit lead that would ultimately stretch to 12 points before ATU's final rally.