Jett Sternberger dropped a game-high 25 points and built two different 18-plus point leads before holding on down the stretch to complete a south Arkansas road sweep with a 79-68 win over Southern Arkansas on Saturday afternoon in Magnolia, Ark.
The win lifts the Savage Storm to 8-5 on the season and 5-3 in Great American Conference play while knocking the Muleriders out of a share of the conference lead.
Sternberger finished with 25 points on 8-of-16 shooting with a trio of threes and dished out a team-best three assists.
Brennen Burns and Kody Clouet joined him in double figures, posting matching 17-point efforts, with Burns hitting 8-of-12 from the floor while Clouet went 5-of-9 and added a 6-of-6 performance at the free throw line.
Clouet also led the Storm on the glass with eight rebounds, while Robert Briley added seven off the bench along with eight points.
Sternberger also snagged three steals while the Storm racked up 10 as a team.
Southeastern shot 57.7 percent from the floor in the first half and 50.0 percent form beyond the arc and would survive a colder effort in the second half to finish the game with a 50.0 percent clip overall and a 41.7 percent effort from long range.
The teams traded buckets off the tip, but Southeastern would follow up with a 31-7 run over the next 9:40, with Sternberger scoring 14 points over that span with SE hitting 13-of-15 overall form the floor and 4-of-4 from three.
The run culminated in a four-point play by Sternberger to take a 33-9 lead with 8:13 remaining in the half.
However, the Muleriders would close the first half on a 22-3 run over the final eight minutes to trim the Storm lead to 36-31 at the halftime break.
SAU would open the second half with back-to-back threes to take its first lead of the game at 37-36 just over a minute into the second half.
The teams traded fruitless possessions for the next minute before Clouet would go to the free throw line and connect on both ends to regain the lead for SE at 38-37.
Those would trigger an 18-0 run that was capped by a pair of Sternberger free throws with 13:01 to play, giving Southeastern a 54-37 lead.
The Muleriders would trim that down to 10 points over the next two minutes, but a 12-4 Storm run capped by a Leslie free throw with 5:40 to play would push the Storm advantage back to 67-49.
SAU would get as close as nine points in the final minute, but Briley and Clouet would combine to go 6-of-6 at the free throw line in the final 30 seconds to preserve the 79-68 win.
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