SE Holds Off Late Charge in Home Win

DURANT, Okla. – Jett Sternberger led a foursome of double-digit scorers as Southeastern survived a pair of second-half runs to pick up an 88-82 win over Southern Arkansas on Thursday night in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
 
The win lifts the Savage Storm to 9-6 overall on the year and 5-2 in Great American Conference play heading into a Saturday afternoon matchup with Arkansas-Monticello at 3 p.m. back in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
 
Sternberger led the way for SE with 23 points, going 6-of-9 from the floor and adding a 10-of-12 effort at the free throw line.
 
Landon Condiff added 18 points off the bench on the strength of a 4-for-6 effort from beyond the arc.
 
Brennen Burns turned on the scoring in the second half and finished with 16 points, while Chandler Dickinson was 4-of-7 from the field to finish with 11.
 
Kylke Leslie and Kody Clouet each finished with nine.
 
The Storm closed out the game with 17 assists as a team with Burns dishing out a game-high eight.
 
On the boards, Southeastern held a 31-to-27 advantage overall with Leslie hauling in seven rebounds to lead the way for SE, with Burns next with six and Sternberger at five.
 
Southeastern finished the game shooting 50.0 percent for the contest, bolstered by a 58.1 percent effort in the first half.
 
The Storm defense would also force 13 turnovers which were turned into a 16-6 edge in points of turnovers while blocking five shots.
 
The teams traded buckets early, but Southeastern would eventually push its lead out to six points on a Condiff three at the 15:48 mark.
 
A 9-0 run by SAU would erase that advantage, but SE would recover and knot the score at 17-17.
 
What followed were three ties and three lead changes before the Storm reeled off a layup and a three from Sternberger to take a 34-29 lead at the 9:17 mark.
 
That would grow to as many as nine points before SAU trimmed the SE advantage to 47-40 at the halftime break.
 
The Southeastern lead would hover at nine points before SAU would chip away, eventually tying the game at 60-60 with 12:14 to play.
 
The Muleriders would briefly take the lead on a three at the 10:33 mark, but SE would score six-straight with some help from an SAU technical foul, taking a 68-63 lead.
 
That would dwindle to one point by the 7:39 mark before SE used a 9-0 run capped by a Burns free throw to take a 79-69 lead with 2:55 to play.
 
SAU would get as close as four points three times over the final 1:08 of the game, but the Storm would hit 7-of-8 free throws over the final minute to preserve the 88-82 win.