Smaller Wills SE past Rival ECU

DURANT, Okla. – A pair of Herculean efforts from Taylor Smaller and Darius Harris helped lift Southeastern to a thrilling 88-83 win over rival East Central on Thursday night in the home finale at Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
 
The win lifts the team to 14-13 overall and 10-9 in Great American Conference play and into a three-way tie for fourth place heading into a Feb. 28 matchup with Southwestern Oklahoma State at 3 p.m. in Weatherford, Okla.
 
Smaller was a one-man wrecking crew on the night as he had a career-high and matched the best outing in the GAC this season with 36 points on the strength of right threes.  He scored 28 of those points in the second half when he was 9-of-12 from the field and 7-of-9 from three point range.
 
In a stretch near the end of the game from the 4:32 mark until there were just 22 seconds to play he scored 17-straight points for the Storm to not only keep them in the game, but rally them from a five-point deficit and tie the game once and give SE the lead twice.
 
Smaller added six rebounds and four assists in the effort.
 
He was aided greatly by the effort of Darius Harris who turned in a double-double with 12 points while matching his career, season and GAC-record tying best 19 rebounds.
 
Harris turned in 19 against Central Oklahoma earlier in the season to set the GAC record and matched it on Thursday night.
 
Tyler Lonzie also chipped in a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds and nearly flirted with a triple double as he dished out a team-best six assists.
 
Sami Bzai added 12 points and Anton Cook rounded out the team's double-digit scorers with 10.
 
The Storm tallied 20 assists as a team, with Lonzie's six leading the way, while Sami Bzai dished out five.
 
SE sued a 61.3 percent shooting effort in the second half to outscore the Tigers 57-51 over the second 20 minutes after taking a 31-30 lead at halftime.
 
That was on the strength of an 11-of-16 effort from three point range which helped the Storm shoot 50 percent from long range for the game.
 
Southeastern took the early lead in the game and would go up by as many as seven points before an ECU rally would give them their first lead of the contest and leave the Storm down 23-18 with 5:54 to go in the half.
 
The Storm bounced back with an 11-2 run capped by a Harris dunk to regain the lead and would take a 31-30 advantage to the locker room at halftime.
 
SE held its lead well into the second half until the 12:11 mark when the teams traded the lead back-and-forth before ECU ran off to a 72-65 lead with 5:15 to play.
 
Kyle Roberts would answer with a three to get the ball rolling, but Smaller would take over the game and single-handedly outscore the Tigers 17-9 over a 4:10 span to give SE the lead for good at 85-82 with 22 seconds to play.
 
Harris would add a free throw and Cook would hit a pair with seven seconds left to ice the game and fashion the 88-83 final score.