For the first time since the start of Great American Conference play, Southeastern came through with a league sweep by winning both women’s and men’s games on Saturday at Ouachita Baptist.
In the women’s contest, the Savage Storm women snapped a nine-game league losing skid with a 60-55 victory.
It took some dramatics in the men’s game but Southeastern managed to survive the Tiger upset bid for a 7774 triumph that left the Savage Storm all alone in second place in the GAC standings.
Southeastern closes a lengthy road swing at Southern Nazarene on Saturday before returning to Bloomer Sullivan Arena for a closing slate in which seven of their final 10 regular season games in February will be at home.
Women
The Southeastern resurgence was ultimately ignited by defense as the Savage Storm limited OBU to just 10 points in the opening stanza while claiming a lead which they maintained the rest of the game.
Coach Darin Grover’s club, which had been victimized by turnovers much of its recent skid, turned the tables by outscoring the hosts by a 14-7 margin in points off turnovers while cashing in on 19 Lady Tiger miscues.
Shooting was a bit sporadic again as they canned only 29 percent from the field in the first frame before turning that up to 47 percent during a 19-point second quarter flurry. The third quarter saw both Aimee and Grace Alverson sink three pointers while Brianna Wietelman added a third while holding Ouachita Baptist at bay despite being outscored 17-14 in the stanza.
Caitlin Kobiske pumped in a pair of buckets to begin the fourth period and the Lady Tigers never got closer than three points down the stretch.
Freshman Kenzli Warden led the Savage Storm in scoring for the third straight game, finishing just shy of a doubledouble with 16 points and nine rebounds.
Grace Alverson tossed in 11 points and Kobiske also tallied double digits with 10 points and seven boards.
Men
After an uncharacteristically slow offensive start, the Savage Storm strung together another sensational second half rally, erasing a nine-point deficit with 10 minutes remaining for the big road win.
Still down 72-70 with a minute to play, stalwart point guard Brennen Burns came through when it mattered the most.
Burns sank a pair of tying free throws and then came up with a steal before feeding Kyle Leslie for a clutch go-ahead trey with just 26 seconds remaining. Jett Sternberger added two more charity tosses with 14 seconds left to ice the victory to improve to 11-7 on the season.
Four Southeastern players reached double figures with Burns filling up the stat sheet with a team-high 18 points on seven of 10 shooting, along with five assists and a pair of steals.
Leslie canned four three pointers on the way to 14 points as Sternberger tallied 13 and Kody Clouet contributed 10. Robert Briley narrowly missed putting a fifth in double figures, posting nine points and five rebounds.