Burns Career High Powers SE to Comeback Victory

DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern turned everything up a notch in the second half as it rallied from a 16-point deficit to pull away with an 85-69 victory over Arkansas-Monticello on Saturday afternoon in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
 
The win lifts the Savage Storm to 10-6 overall on the season and 6-2 in Great American Conference play.
 
Brennen Burns played possessed as he dropped a career-high 33 points with 20 of those coming in the second half. He would finish the contest hitting 12-of-20 on the strength of a 7-of-9 second half effort.
 
And despite being the game's leading scorer, he would dish out a game-high seven assists to power the offense, with seven of those coming in his huge second half performance.
 
Jett Sternberger followed with 17 points, while Kody Clouet finished with 14.
 
Robert Briley just missed double figures with nine off the bench while Kyle Leslie added seven.
 
Clouet would lead all rebounders with seven on the afternoon, while Briley would chip in five.
 
Briley's defensive effort also showed in a six-steal performance, while Sternberger snagged four and Burns added three to help Southeastern to 17 steals on the contest.
 
The Storm offense finished the night hitting 52.9 percent overall, but needed a 61.3 percent effort in the second half to pull it off and still saw UAM shoot 62.2 percent for the game.
 
Southeastern's press was the difference as SE forced 24 turnovers and committed just eight, holding a 17-to-5 difference in steal counts.
 
That was amplified in the second half where the turnover count was 14-to-2 with SE forcing eight steals and outscoring the Boll Weevils 54-31 despite allowing them to shoot 58.8 percent for the half.
 
The ending looked a long way off ad the game started and saw the Storm allow the first nine points of the game before scoring, but they did answer with six-straight to keep the game close early.
 
UAM answered with a 7-0 run to kick off an overall 17-4 stretch that saw the Weevil lead reach a game-high 16 points by the 7:56 mark of the first half.
 
Southeastern would chip away and close the gap to 38-31 at the half as Leslie drained a three on the final possession.
 
UAM would push their lead back to 14 points early in the second half, but a 16-2 run capped by a Sternberger jumper would knot the game at 47-47 with 13:15 to play.
 
The teams would trade buckets and UAM would cling to a 52-51 lead with 10:22 remaining.
 
A 13-2 run would see the Storm not only regain the lead but push that lead to double figures by the 6:44 mark.
 
SDE would outscore UAM 19-12 over the next five and a half minutes to take its largest lead of the night at 83-66 before settling on an 85-69 final score.