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SE’s Ashton Hackler has the ball in the Saturday game with Harding. Matt Swearengin | Durant Democrat -
Southeastern players Robert Briley and Landon Condiff are shown in the Saturday game with Harding. -
SE’s Brennen Burns goes up against Harding players. Matt Swearengin | Durant Democrat -
Kenzli Warden dribbles the ball. -
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Southeastern player Jayden Bridgeman is about to shoot the ball. Caitlin Kobiske goes up for a basket in the game with Harding.
Head coach Kelly Green picked up his 200th win at the helm of the Savage Storm and point guard Brennan Burns set new school and conference records for assists as Southeastern wrapped up a pair of crucial league victories at home last week.
The Savage Storm rallied past Arkansas Tech for a 70-66 victory in a battle for the Great American Conference top spot on Thursday and the hosts followed up by scorching the nets for 16 three pointers in cruising by Harding, 99-87, on Saturday.
Southeastern’s women scored a 64-57 triumph against Arkansas Tech but ran into a buzz saw with the conference co-leaders in Harding, suffering a 70-50 defeat.
Both teams will be back on the road in Arkansas this weekend before returning to Bloomer Sullivan Arena for four of their final five regular season contests.
Women
Trailing 42-41 heading into the final period against Arkansas Tech, Southeastern found its rhythm with three treys and added a 10 for 16 shooting performance at the charity stripe down the stretch to notch its seventh win of the season.
Grace Alverson’s three pointer with 7:41 remaining put the Savage Storm ahead for good and sparked a decisive 13-0 flurry that was capped by Alverson’s second trey of the quarter more than three minutes later. Caitlin Kobiske also contributed six points during the pivotal stretch.
Kobiske had a monster outing, posting a season-high 27 points on eight of 14 shooting from the field and nine of 12 at the charity stripe while also pulling down 12 rebounds.
Alverson tallied a seasonbest four three pointers and 15 points in the victory as Kenzli Warden chipped in seven points and eight boards along with six points and 11 rebounds from Holli Lindley.
Eleventh-ranked Harding raced to a 24-8 advantage through one quarter in the week’s finale and Southeastern could never get over the hump after that. The Lady Bison connected on 10 of 18 from the field while the Savage Storm hit just two of nine in the period.
Harding took advantage of a size edge to produce 26 points in the paint also notching 23 points off of 18 Southeastern turnovers.
Ashton Hackler scored 17 and Kobiske had 10 in pacing the Savage Storm scoring.
Men
In the massive Thursday showdown, Arkansas Tech shot a sizzling 48 percent on three pointers and had the Savage Storm on the ropes before the hosts came up with the key plays when they counted.
Down 54-45 with 8:28 remaining, Burns got the rally rolling with four straight points and Southeastern began to catch fire themselves from beyond the arc. Jett Sternberger canned two treys and Kyle Leslie added another as the Savage Storm narrowed the gap to 62-60 with five minutes to play.
Sternberger’s three pointer with 3:24 left knotted the score at 64 and Burns tossed in a driving layup moments later that put Southeastern in front for good as the standout point scored the final six Savage Storm points to seal the victory.
Burns and Sternberger each finished with 16 points with Leslie adding 11.
Much like in Thursday’s contest, the opposition got off to a blazing shooting start as Harding connected on 60 percent from the field in half number one but Southeastern still managed a 50-47 cushion on the strength of eight three pointers.
The Bison cooled considerably after intermission but the Savage Storm did not, scorching the nets for eight more treys in the second half to extend the lead as Burns continually found open teammates even though he only scored four points.
Kody Clouet led all scorers with 24 points while Landon Condiff and Leslie poured in 20 each. Chandler Dickinson and Robert Briley also reached double figures with 10 apiece.
“We were fouling so much in the first half and kept them in the game,” Green said of the Harding contest. “We had some bad matchups defensively but did a much better job in the second half. Due to injury and fouls we played a lot of guys but not really by design. We have several other guys we believe in, and they just haven’t gotten that much time. It was nice to get them some game minutes because we are going to need everybody down the stretch.”