DURANT, Okla. – True freshman
DeVante Brooks registered a career-high 20 points and the league's top offensive rebounder recorded his tenth game this season with four or more such boards as he grabbed five offensive rebounds on Thursday night. The Muleriders were unable to hold onto a nine-point halftime advantage as Southeastern Oklahoma surged in the second half on its way to a 92-82 Great American Conference victory inside Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
The Savage Storm engineered a 17-4 run after the intermission to take a 58-54 lead at the 14:43 mark of the second half. Southeastern Oklahoma's lead would not get larger than 11 points in the final ten minutes, but the closest Southern Arkansas would cut into its deficit would be six points after Brooks knocked down his only triple try of the evening with 41 seconds remaining in the game.
Highlighting the first half production for the Muleriders was senior trigger man
Keeton Tennison who shot a perfect 6-of-6 from beyond-the-arc. Redshirt junior
CJ Elkins went for 13 points in the first twenty minutes with six assists and a pair of steals. Elkins finished the game with a career-high ten assists and produced his second double-double of the season. In the first half, Brooks dropped half of his twenty points and grabbed five rebounds.
Charlie Thomas added ten points and grabbed six rebounds to round out Muleriders in double-figure scoring.
It was a hot shooting first half for Southern Arkansas as the Muleriders were 18-of-33 (54.5%) from the floor, including an 8-of-13 (61.5%) clip from range. SAU was perfect from the line in six attempts. It proved to be a tale of two halves for SAU in Durant as the Muleriders managed to sink just three of their ten attempts from three-point range with a 45.5% (5-of-11) mark from the charity stripe in the final twenty minutes.
Southeastern Oklahoma managed to convert eight second half turnovers by the Muleriders into 15 points. Southern Arkansas outscored the Savage Storm inside (28-20) and in second chance points (17-10). The game featured nine lead changes and nine tied scores.
Southern Arkansas heads to Ada, Oklahoma, on Saturday, February 3, for a crucial league tilt with East Central in the team's final game in the Sooner State before a potential return trip to the conference tournament in Bartlesville in early March. Tip-off from inside the Kerr Activities is scheduled for 3 p.m. Live coverage links are available at www.MuleriderAthletics.com.
