Burns Paces Storm in OT Road Victory at SWOSU

WEATHERFORD, Okla.  – Southeastern shored up its free throw shooting in overtime, hitting 8-of-9 in the extra frame to survive with a 97-89 win over Southwestern Oklahoma State on Saturday afternoon in Weatherford, Okla.
 
The win lifts the Savage Storm to 9-6 overall on the season and 6-4 in Great American Conference play heading into a Monday night matchup with rival East Central in Ada, Okla.
 
Brennen Burns flirted with a triple-double on the contest with a game-high 27 points while grabbing 10 rebounds and dishing out a game-high seven assists.
 
Three others joined him in double-figures as Landon Condiff came off the bench to turn in 18 points on the strength of four threes, while Jett Sternberger followed with 16 points and RJ Weeks added 12.
 
Aaron Jacob hit a trio of threes and finished with nine points off the bench, while Robert Briley matched a game high in rebounds with 10 while adding six points.
 
Burns seven assists led all players, while Kody Clouet dished out six before fouling out.
 
Southeastern finished with 20 assists as a team.
 
SE would trail by as many as 12 points in the second half, doing so with 13:15 to play in regulation, and more pressingly trailed 80-75 with 26 seconds remaining in the second half.
 
That was when Burns would take over, first connecting on a driving layup with 19 seconds left to cut the deficit to one possession.
 
SWOSU's Chris Braggs would go to the free throw line and miss the front end of a one-and-one opportunity.
 
Kyle Leslie would haul in the rebound and Burns would drain a game-tying three with 13 seconds left to send the game to overtime tied at 80-80.
 
Briley and Sternberger would score on back-to-back possessions to give the Storm an early four-point lead in the extra session, but a SWOSU three would close that gap to 87-86 with 2:59 to play.
 
The teams traded possessions before Weeks would score on a break to push the lead back to three points by the 2:17 mark.
 
A Kamden Gipson free throw would close that lead to two points with 1:00 to play, but from that point on Burns, Sternberger, and Briley would combine to go 8-of-8 at the free throw line over the final minute to secure the 89-97 win.
 
Condiff hit a trio of threes and shot 5-of-8 to post 13 first-half points, while Burns added nine points and dished out five assists over the first 20 minutes.
 
Southeastern doubled up the Bulldogs over the first six and a half minutes of the contest, hitting 8-of-12 overall from the floor and 4-of-7 from three over that span to lead 20-10.
 
SWOSU would respond with a 19-7 run over a seven-minute spread that saw the Bulldogs take their first lead of the afternoon at 32-30.
 
The teams then traded buckets before Southeastern would score 11 of the next 17 points to take a three point lead, but SWOSU would score the final points of the half and the SE lead was 44-43 at the halftime break.