Box Score

BETHANY, Okla. — What anxiety there was inside the Sawyer Center at tip off went away early the first half as Southern Nazarene knocked off No. 8 Oklahoma Baptist, 76-69, Thursday night in the Sooner Athletic Conference opener.

The Crimson Storm (5-1, 1-0 SAC) knock off the Lady Bison (1-6, 0-1 SAC) for the first time since the 2006-07 season and breaks a four-game losing streak to OBU.

Logan Martin scored a season-high 20 points as she lit up the nets hitting four of the five 3-pointers she attempted and went 6-for-13 from the field. She was also 4-for-6 from the free-throw line. Martin scored 19 of those points in the second half. The junior finished just one assist shy of a double-double with nine and also pulled in three rebounds.

Sharmeda Johnson matched Martin with 20 points as well as she went 8-for-9 from the field and 4-for-4 from the charity stripe. She also added six rebounds. Jamie Bottger added 11 points on the night as well. Abbey Marra led the Storm on the boards with nine rebounds while Oumoul Thiam added seven points and seven rebounds.

SNU got hot in the second half, shooting 54.2 percent (13-24) from the field and 62.5 percent (5-8) from beyond the arc. The Storm were 7-for-13 from 3-point range on the game. Southern Nazarene forced 24 turnovers and scored 26 points off those miscues. The SNU bench also outscored OBU's reserves 25-8.

Oklahoma Baptist opened the game on a 16-4 run to take its biggest lead of the game, but Johnson sparked a 7-2 run with a layup cut it to 16-11. OBU pushed the lead back out to 20-11 before Audra Skimbo sank a free throw to cap a 10-3 run as SNU got within two at 23-21 with 6:16 left in the half. The Lady Bison led 29-22 with 4:20 left, but the Crimson Storm closed the half with an 11-2 run to take a 33-31 lead at intermission.

The Storm jumped out to a 38-31 lead to start the second half, but the Lady Bison answered with a 9-1 run to take a 40-39 lead. After OBU led 42-40, the Storm scored seven straight on a Martin trey and back-to-back buckets by Johnson and Marra, to lead 47-42. OBU retook the lead at 52-51 midway through the first with an 8-2 run.

With 4:53 left to play, Martin's final three of the game broke a 63-63 tie, the tenth of the game, and sparked a 13-6 game-ending run for the Storm. SNU held OBU to just two field goals, both treys by Lauren Crenshaw, in the final five minutes of play.

SNU heads to St. Gregory's for the first road conference game of the season, Saturday, at 6 p.m.