Southeastern played the game it wanted for 32 minutes on Wednesday night against league-leading Southern Nazarene but closed out the final 7:58 by hitting 1-of-13 from the floor on its way to a 75-66 loss in Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
The loss drops the Savage Storm to 8-6 overall and 5-4 in Great American Conference play heading into a Saturday afternoon matchup with Southwestern Oklahoma State at 1 p.m. in Weatherford, Okla.
Southeastern shot 5-of-10 from three-point range in the first half and had hit 4-of-8 from long range in the second half when Kyle Leslie gave the Storm a 59-58 lead with 7:59 to play.
From that point on SE would get just one field goal, a Jett Sternberger three with 23 seconds left in the contest.
From the time SE opened second half scoring with a Brennen Burns three, SE was 4-of 7 from long range and 11-of-19 overall over the first 12 minutes of the second frame before shooting turned cold down the stretch.
Sternberger would lead Southeastern wth 20 points on an 8-of-13 effort that included four threes while adding five steals on defense.
Burns was next in line with 16 while adding a game-high seven assists and grabbing five rebounds.
Leslie just missed double-figures with nine and Kody Clouet added eight.
Robert Briley came off the bench to lead the team in rebounding with seven and chipped in six points.
After falling behind 8-0 to open the game, SE would chip away, slowly closing the gap until a Sternberger bucket at the 7:45 mark would give Southeastern its first lead of the night at 22-21.
SNU would regain the lead however, eventually taking a 36-32 lead into the halftime break thanks to a three-point buzzer beater.
Another Sternberger bucket just three minutes into the second half would give the Storm a lead and eventually the SE lead would stretch to 54-50 with 11:49 to play following a Burns three-point play.
Southeastern was unable to stretch the lead any further and the teams would alternate one-possession leads until a Leslie three-point bucket with 7:59 would give the Storm its last lead of the night at 59-58.
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