Clouet, Burns Combine for 50 In OT Victory

BETHANY, Okla. – Kody Clouet and Brennen Burns combined for 50 points, with Burns dropping eight of those in overtime to power Southeastern to an 85-77 victory over Southern Nazarene on Saturday afternoon in Bethany, Okla.
 
The win is the team's third-straight and lifts the Savage Storm to 13-7 overall on the season with a 9-3 record in Great American Conference play.
 
Southeastern saw a lead slip way late in the second half, with NSU tying the score with 1:28 to play before taking a 70-68 lead on a pair of free throws.
 
Kyle Leslie would then provide the heroics to send the game to overtime tied at 70-70 with a layup with eight seconds to play in regulation.
 
The Crimson Storm would hit a three to open the overtime sessions, but a Burns three-point play would trigger a 9-0 run capped by a Jett Sternberger bucket to take a 79-73 lead.
 
SNU would close the gap to four points on a pair of free throws, but Burns would again connect with 1:58 to play and SE would push close out the 85-77 win thanks to a wide-open Leslie bucket and a Clouet free throw in the final minute.
 
Clouet would lead all scorers with 30 points, going 6-of-10 from beyond the arc and 9-of-13 overall from the field.
 
Burns was next in line with 20 points, putting up eight of those in the five-minute overtime session, going 9-of-13 from the field for the game while also handing out a team-high four assists.
 
Chandler Dickinson added 14 points, connecting on four threes, while Sternberger just missed double-figures with nine.
 
Leslie led the way for the Storm on the boards with seven rebounds, followed by six from Burns and five from Clouet.
 
SNU would score the first four points of the game, but SE bounced back, first with a Clouet three to trigger a 14-1 run capped by a Dickinson three, taking a nine-point lead inside of the first four minutes.
 
The Storm would hold SNU at arm's length until the midway point of the half when the gap would close to just one-point twice, the last time with 8:32 to play in the half.
 
Southeastern again pushed the lead back to seven points, but saw that dissipate again before heading to the half tied at 34-34.
 
The second half would feature four ties and eight lead changes, with the Storm again leading by as many as seven points before the Crimson Storm would erase the advantage and go up by two, leading to Leslie's game-tying opportunity.