Savage Storm See Streak End with Road Loss

SEARCY, Ark. – Despite five-double digit scorers, Southeastern sees its nine-game winning streak come to an end with a 76-73 loss on the road at Harding on Saturday afternoon in Searcy, Ark.
 
The loss is just the second on the season for the Savage Storm who drop to 9-2 on the year and 4-1 in Great American Conference play.
 
Kellen Manek led all scorers with 21 points on the strength of a 5-of-10 effort from beyond the arc.
 
Ante Brzovic turned in his fourth double-double of the season in grand fashion with 17 points and a career-high 17 rebounds to lead all players on the boards.
 
Jett Sternberger followed with 13 points, followed by 11 from Bobby Johnson and 10 from Adam Dworsky.
 
Dworsky, Manek, and RJ Weeks each dished out three assists.
 
Brzovic's 17 rebounds pushed Southeastern to a 41-to-39 edge on the boards, with Sternberger adding six rebounds, while Manek and Kyle Leslie chipped in five apiece.
 
The SE offense had its worst shooting effort of the season, finishing at 37.5 percent from the field and 28.9 percent from beyond the arc while turning the ball over a season-high 14 times.
 
A Manek three would put SE on the board and his second bucket would give SE a 5-4 lead at the 17:40 mark, but a 7-0 HU run would leave the Storm trailing 11-5 by the 15:36 mark.
 
SE would chip away at that deficit before reeling off a 7-0 run of its own, capped by a Brzovic jumper to take a 22-21 lead.
 
The next six minutes would feature three ties and six lead changes before back-to-back buckets from Sternberger and Brzovic to put the Storm in front 34-32 with 3:18 to play in the half.
 
The Bisons would score seven of the final 10 points in the half to lead at the break 39-37.
 
The teams traded buckets out of the half before a 5-0 run gave SE a 43-41 lead.
 
HU would answer with four-straight, but another 5-0 run would give the Storm a 50-47 edge with 13:29 to play.
 
The Bisons used an 11-4 run to regain the lead and push it out to 60-56 with 8:07 to play and would extend that lead to as many as 71-63 with 3:51 to play.
 
Southeastern would make a final run as Manek had a pair of freebies and a three followed by a Brzovic dunk to close the gap to 71-70 with 1:25 remaining.
 
Harding would get a layup and a three to take a 76-70 lead before Dworsky closed the gap to 76-73 with a three with 17 seconds to play.
 
Southeastern would twice send the Bisons to the free throw line over the final 13 seconds, with HU missing the front end of one-and-ones both times, but a pair of three point tries attempting to tie the game would not fall and Southeastern would drop the contest 76-73.