EDMOND — Horace McGloster and Xavier Alexander combined for 41 points as the NAIA's No. 2 Southern Nazarene fell 86-78 to NCAA Division II No. 18 Central Oklahoma in a Tuesday night exhibition.
McGloster scored a team-high 22 points and notched a double-double with 10 rebounds while Alexander dropped 19 points and grabbed six boards. No other SNU player was in double figures as Jeremy Lightfoot was the closest with nine points.
The Bronchos (3-0) were able to count the game to their overall record and remained unbeaten primarily because of what they did at the free-throw line. The Crimson Storm struggled with foul trouble for the majority of the game, sending UCO to the charity stripe 35 times. The Bronchos delivered by hitting 26 free throws while the Storm hit just 16-for-31.
UCO's Duante Williams scored a game-high 24 points with half of those coming on 12-for-16 shooting from the line.
Despite the early foul trouble, SNU almost didn't miss a beat as it shot 68.4 percent (13-19) from the field and 50 percent from beyond the arc and trailed by just one at the half.
SNU opened the second half with a 10-5 run to lead 46-42 and held a 48-44 lead just three minutes into the second half when the Bronchos went on a 32-13 run over the next 10 minutes to nearly put the game on ice with its biggest lead at 76-61.
The Storm didn't fade away as the 3-pointers started to fall late. McGloster hit he first of back-to-back treys while Henry hit the second and a pair of free throws to help make it a 77-71 game with 2:26 left to play. #A.J. Thomas# then hit a jumper with 1:26 remaining to pull the Storm within four, but that was as close as SNU came.
The Bronchos hit nine free throws in the final 1:19 of the game to seal it.
SNU turned the ball over 22 times and were only able to force 12. UCO scored 23 points off those turnovers while SNU turned the Bronchos mishaps into 12 points. The Storm shot 56 percent (28-50) from the field and were 33.3 percent (4-14) from downtown.
The Crimson Storm are back in action Friday night when they host No. 22 Evangel (Mo.) for a 7 p.m. contest.
