Storm Stretch Streak to Eight With Rivalry Win

DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern had a pair of 20-point scorers and saw Brennen Burns finish a rebound shy of a triple-double en route to an 82-75 victory over rival East Central on Thursday night in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
 
The win lifts the Savage Storm to 18-7 overall on the year and 14-3 in Great American Conference play, while the Tigers dip to 10-13 on the year and 6-11 in league play.
 
Burns would finish the night perfect, hitting 4-of-4 from the field and 6-of-6 from the free throw line on his way to 14 points and converted the double-double with 12 assists in the contest, marking his fifth double-digit assist game of the season. He would also tack on a team-best nine rebounds to nearly pick up a triple double.
 
Kody Clouet and Landon Condiff were beneficiaries of several of those Burns assists, with Clouet dropping a game-high 23 on 8-of-17 shooting with four threes, while Condiff hit 7-of-16 overall and 6-of-11 from three on his way to 20 points.
 
Kyle Leslie would join them in double figures with 10, as would Robert Briley who added 10 as well.
 
Condiff would also add eight boards, while Briley chipped in six.
 
Leslie would score the first five points of the game on his own, and SE would take an early lead which peaked at six points at the 15:42 mark before a 6-0 run by the Tigers would knot the game at 16-16 with 14:18 to play in the first half.
 
The teams traded buckets over the next possessions before ECU again used a 6-0 run to take its first lead and push it to 24-20 by the 7:39 mark.
 
Back-to-back three from Clouet and Leslie followed by another Clouet layup would erase the deficit and once again see the Storm up 28-24.
 
Southeastern would push that lead up to seven points which would hold as the margin at the halftime break with the Storm up 43-36.
 
SE would kick off a 17-5 run early in the second half that was capped by a Condiff three with 12:03 to play to push the Storm advantage to a game-high 18 points.
 
ECU would answer back with a 10-1 run to cut the Storm edge to nine points, but minutes later an 8-0 Storm response would see the lead grow to 74-57 with 4:07 to play.
 
The Tigers would chip away one final time, using 10-0 run to close the gap to 74-67 with 48 seconds remaining but that was as close as it would get as Burns, Clouet, and Leslie would combine to go 8-of-8 at the free throw line over the final 44 seconds to preserve the 82-75 win.