Turnovers Costly in Storm Loss to SMSU

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. – A cold shooting first half and a season-worst 18 turnovers proved to be too much to overcome as Southeastern dropped its opening matchup at the Hillyard Tipoff Classic to Southwest Minnesota State, 72-68, on Friday afternoon in St. Joseph, Mo.
 
The loss drops the Savage Storm to 1-2 on the year heading into a Saturday afternoon matchup at 1 p.m. with Augustana.
 
SE opened the contest by shooting 39.3 percent in the first half, its worst performance of the season thus far, but was bitten even harder by 12 turnovers over the first 20 minutes which led to a 9-3 edge for the Mustangs in points off turnovers.
 
Aaron Jacob led the way for the Storm with a game-high 18 points on 8-of-14 shooting with a pair of threes while also leading the way on the glass with eight rebounds.
 
Kyle Leslie drained a trio of threes and was 7-of-12 overall from the floor to finish with 17 points.
 
Brennen Burns and Landon Condiff each posted eight points, while Kody Clouet turned in seven.
 
Jett Sternberger was held scoreless for the first time in his SE career, but he did dish out a game-high six assists.
 
Jacob's eight rebounds led the Storm on the boards, while Clouet was next in line with five.
 
SE came out firing from beyond the arc with Clouet and Leslie each knocking down a three in the first two minutes but an 11-0 run by the Mustangs would leave the Storm in an eight-point hole by the 15:29 mark.
 
The deficit would balloon to 10 points, but threes from Leslie and Jacob followed by a Leslie layup at the 7:37 mark would close the gap to 28-26.
 
Both teams would go scoreless for nearly three minutes before SMSU would push its lead back to seven points, with SE getting the final say with a Burns bucket cutting the halftime score to 35-30.
 
Southeastern would knock on the door early in the second half and at the 16:12 mark a Leslie three would give them the lead for the first time in the second half at 38-37.
 
SMSU would retake the lead, but a Condiff three followed by a Jacob layup and a Condiff jumper at the 13:01 mark would regain the lead for the Storm and push it to 45-41.
 
The SE lead would reach five points on a Jacob three with 11:04 to play, but the Mustangs would answer with the next five points to knot the game at 50-50 with 9:55
 
Southeastern would retake the lead twice more, pushing that advantage to four points on a Jacob three with 5:31 to play.
 
SMSU would follow that bucket with the next eight points to take the lead, pushing it to six points with under three minutes to play.
 
The Storm would get layups from Leslie and Jacob to cut the deficit to 70-60 with 1:17 to play, but the Mustangs would tack on a pair of free throws and SE was unable to score over the final minute, leaving the final at 72-68.