Savage Storm claim GAC regular season crown

For the second time in three years, the Southeastern Savage Storm claimed a share of the Great American Conference regular season championship at home Saturday with a scintillating 93-89 win over Northwestern.

The victory earned Coach Kelly Green’s club the top seed in this week’s conference tournament at Firelake Arena in Shawnee where the 22-8 Savage Storm are slated to face off with Southern Arkansas in the opening round at 5:45 on Thursday.

Despite seeing their 11-game winning streak snapped with an 87-84 overtime loss to Oklahoma Baptist on Thursday, the Savage Storm rallied with a strong performance just two days later.

Against OBU, Southeastern trailed by as many as 14 points with 16 minutes remaining in regulation before putting together another fierce comeback down the stretch.

The Savage Storm eventually snagged a 70-68 advantage on a Landon Condiff three pointer with 3:25 remaining but that edge was short-lived as the momentum continued to shift back and forth before a Brennan Burns driving layup with six seconds to go knotted the score at 78 to force the extra frame.

A Burns free throw with 1:05 left in overtime gave Southeastern an 84-83 lead but proved to be the final Southeastern points as a pair of Savage Storm shots in the final 15 seconds were off the mark.

For the overtime period, the normally hot shooting Savage Storm connected on only one of eight field goal attempts which proved to be devastating to their chances.

Burns still managed a double- double with 22 points and 10 assists, leading five players in double figures offensively. Kyle Leslie contributed 18, Robert Briles had 14, Kody Clouet tossed in 12 and Condiff had 11.

It was a sizzling first half for both offenses in the Northwestern showdown as the Rangers scorched the nets for 63 percent while taking a narrow 5250 lead to intermission. Southeastern hit 55 percent.

The Savage Storm ended the with an uncharacteristically low six three pointers but cashed in 29 of 38 free throws while holding the Rangers to just 38 percent from the field over the final half.

For most of the second half the lead see-sawed back and forth until a Burns conventional three-point play with 3:54 left put Southeastern ahead to stay at 84-81.

Burns was the offensive catalyst once again, pumping in 27 points along with seven assists and seven rebounds but Briley’s performance inside proved massive. The junior stalwart notched a crucial double-double with 20 points and 15 rebounds.

Leslie finished with 14 points, Clouet scored 12 and Jett Sternberger returned from injury to tally 10 points off the bench.