Burns Career-High Powers SE to Win

LUBBOCK, Texas – Brennen Burns turned in a career-high 31 points to pace Southeastern to a 108-101 victory over Northern Michigan on Saturday afternoon in the season opener at the D2CCA Tipoff Classic in Lubbock, Texas.
 
The Savage Storm open the season 1-0 with game two of the season-opening classic slated for 2:30 p.m. on Sunday afternoon against No. 7 West Texas A&M back in Lubbock, Texas.
 
Burns went 11-of-17 from the field and added a 9-of-13 effort at the free throw line as he led all players offensively on his way to 31 points. He would also hand out a team-high four assists and chipped in four rebounds.
 
Kody Clouet was next in line on offense with 26 points on 9-of-14 shooting overall with a pair of threes and a 6-of-6 effort at the free throw line. He would also match the team high in rebounding with seven boards and led all defenders with four steals.
 
Aaron Jacob nearly gave SE three 20-point scorers as finished with 18 points on 6-of-14 shooting and added a 5-of-5 effort at the free throw line. He also added seven boards on the defensive side.
 
Jett Sternberger rounded out the team's double-digit scorers with 12 points while grabbing seven rebounds.
 
Jayden Bridgeman was the leading scorer off the bench with seven points in his SE debut while grabbing four rebounds.
 
Jacob, Clouet, and Sternberger each posted a team-best seven rebounds, with Burns and Bridgeman adding four each.
 
SE would hold a 41-to-40 edge on the boards as a team, and made the most of opportunities with a 21-13 edge in points off turnovers and a 56-42 advantage in the paint.
 
The Wildcats would come out with the first five points of the contest, but a Leslie layup and a Jacob three would knot the game less than two minutes in.
 
The teams played to two more ties before NMU used back-to-back threes to take an 18-12 lead with 14:23 to play in the half.
 
SE would chip away, but the Wildcats would twice push their lead back to six points before the Storm finally put together a push to tie the game at 36-36 with 4:06 remaining in the frame.
 
The teams would tie twice more before Jayden Bridgeman would connect on a putback with 2:07 to play to give the Storm a 43-41 lead.
 
NMU would take a one-point lead with 19 seconds to play on a three-point play, but a Burns layup with nine seconds on the clock would give Southeastern a 47-46 lead at the half.
 
SE would score first in the second half but NMU would get back-to-back threes to take a lead by the 18:20 mark.
 
Southeastern regained the lead with consecutive buckets and between the 17:44 mark and the 10:38 mark the game would feature nine lead changes and four ties with neither team leading by more than a possession until the Wildcats would push their advantage to 74-70 on a three.
 
That would not last long as Jacob would score the next four points to regain the lead, and a pair of Burns free throws with 7:47 to play would give Southeastern its first two-possession lead of the half at 81-76.
 
The Storm would bever trail again, despite NMU closing the gap to one possession four times over the next five minutes, SE would outscore the Wildcats 12-7 over the final two minutes thanks to a 12-of-14 free throw shooting effort in the final two minutes as SE pulled away for the 108-101 win.