Box Score

BETHANY, Okla. — The wheels are turning and the machine is running as smooth as ever as No. 13 Southern Nazarene picked up its fifth straight win and 10th in 11 games with a 67-55 win over Rogers State.

Jon West scored a career-high with 20 points and notched his first career double-double with 10 rebounds, one short of tying a career-high. It was the second time this season West posted a career-high in points as he has recorded a pair of 18-point games before tonight's hot hand. The junior buried a career-high four 3-pointers going 4-for-5 from beyond the arc and 7-for-9 from downtown.

“I think for most teams in this league Jon would start,” said SNU head coach Adam Bohac. “He provides a great spark as our sixth man and does a great job off the bench. He has great versatility and can play many positions as well as guard those same positions. He has struggled a bit this year in 3-point shooting, but really got it going tonight. Teams haven't been guarding him as hard on the perimeter and we just encouraged him to keep shooting.”

Southern Nazarene (15-3, 8-2 SAC) as a team shot 51 percent (25-for-49) from the field and were 7-for-18 from downtown. The Storm nearly shot 60 percent from the field in the second half going 13-for-22. A.J. Thomas, who didn't play the entire first half, notched his first double-double of his career with 10 points and 10 assists, as he never came off the floor in the second half.

C.J. Henry also added 12 points while Xavier Alexander had nine.

After Rogers shot 40 percent from the field in the fist half, SNU held the Hillcats to just 8-for-26 from the field in the second and did not allow a 3-pointer in the final 20 minutes as RSU went 0-for-7.

The only lead SNU had in the first half was at 4-2 before RSU used an 11-2 run to climb out to its largest lead of the half at 13-6. The Hillcats matched that lead three more times with the last coming at 25-18 with seven minutes left in the opening period. The Storm closed it to two, three different times and tied it at 30 on a Horace McGloster dunk after he picked the ball away from Deveric Taylor. Rogers though got a layup with 38 seconds left to take a 32-30 lead at intermission.

“I felt like we really didn't guard them well to start the game,” said Bohac. “They (Rogers State) were doing whatever they wanted to do so we were searching for five guys to guard the way we wanted to guard at the end of the half.”

RSU continued the run from the first half and increased it to 7-0 early in the second with a 37-30 lead before Thomas sparked a 17-4 run, capped by a West trey, as SNU took a 44-41 lead and never trailed from that point on.

The Storm took their biggest lead of the game on a West free throw that put SNU up 67-53 with 1:04 to play.

The five-game win streak is matches the highest of the season and SNU will go for its sixth straight when it hosts John Brown, Monday, at 8 p.m. in a game that was pushed back from Thursday because of inclement weather.