Durant native Regan Browne torched the Savage Storm for 19 points as the ECU Tigers held off a Southeastern rally on Thursday.
The Tigers took a 69-62 decision in the final home game at Bloomer Sullivan Arena. But it took a dagger-like three from Browne, who was 5-8 from behind the line, to end a likely Savage Storm comeback.
Southeastern trailed by as much as 19 before cutting the lead to 12 at the break with a late 9-2 first-half run. Cheree Kiser (19 points, 8 rebounds) and Natalie Ruud (11 points and 3-4 from three) hit back-to-back from deep as Southeastern briefly tied the game in the second half.
Bailey Welch (13 points, 8 assists) scooped in a shot with just under two minutes to go which cut the Tigers lead to 64-60. But ECU would close the game on a 5-2 run to capture their 18th win of the season.
East Central grabbed 58 rebounds to 47 for the Savage Storm. This led to a 19-4 Tiger advantage on second chance points.
The Southeastern women are now 10-15 for the season, heading into a Saturday road game at Harding University (17-8 and 13-6 in the Great American Conference). This will be the last game of the regular season before the conference tournament next week.
The Savage Storm will finish no higher than the sixth seed out of eight, but could fall to seven with a Saturday loss and a win for Henderson State against winless Southern Arkansas.










