SE Unable to Rally Late in Home Loss

DURANT, Okla. – Jett Sternberger led all scorers in the contest with 20 points, but a cold-shooting second half would prove costly for the Savage Storm in an 86-77 loss on Thursday night to Arkansas Tech in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
 
The loss drops SE to 6-4 overall on the season and 3-2 in Great American Conference play heading into a Jan. 7 matchup versus Harding at 3 p.m. back in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
 
Sternberger finished with 20 points to lead all scorers, hitting 7-of-12 overall from the field while also handing out a game-high six assists to lead the team.
 
Brennen Burns was on his heels with 18 points on a 7-of-17 effort with a pair of threes.
 
Kody Clouet rounded out the double-digit scorers with 10.
 
Kyle Leslie pulled down nine rebounds to lead all players on the glass, while Aaron Jacob snagged six and Sternberger grabbed five.
 
Sternberger also led the way with five steals as the Storm finished with 13 as a team, but SE also committed its second-most turnovers of the season with 22.
 
Southeastern took the early lead, but an 8-0 run by ATU would push the Wonder Boy lead to 15-8 early in the first half.
 
The Storm would chip away and tie the game, and eventually regain the lead on a Burns three at the 5:12 mark of the half at 24-23.
 
ATU would tie the game with a free throw and Southeastern would answer with five-straight points to take its largest lead of the half which it would see trimmed back to just 36-35 at the halftime break.
 
The Wonder Boys would take the lead to open the half and the Storm would answer to tie the game twice early.
 
ATU would push its lead out to as many as four points, but again the Storm would bounce back, tying the game on a Burns jumper and finally taking a 51-50 lead on a Sternberger bucket with 14:53 to play.
 
The teams then exchanged leads and tied the game with Jacob giving the Storm a brief two-point lead at the 13:20 mark.
 
The Wonder boys would, then put together a 19-4 run to push its lead to 13 points by the 6:58 mark.
 
SE trailed by 13 with 3:00 to play before kicking off an 11-4 run that was capped by a pair of Clouet free throws which closed the deficit to 82-77, but that was as close as it would get as ATU would hit free throws over the final t30 seconds to make the final 86-77.