Box Score
BETHANY, Okla. — There was no doubt that tonight's game was a must win for Southern Nazarene and after trailing by 12 at the break, it was starting to look like the Storm was dissipating a bit. SNU turned up the defense and took care of the ball in the second half though to and outscored Rogers State 39-22 in the final 20 minutes to pick up the 60-55 win.
The win breaks a two-game skid to the Hillcats (12-7, 6-6 SAC) and the Storm (14-4, 8-2 SAC) have won two in a row and have won three of their last four.
It was a tag team effort for Southern Nazarene, as
Logan Martin and
Oumoul Thiam became the scoring duo while
Sharmeda Johnson and
Abbey Marra cleaned up the glass. Martin and Thiam combined for 43 points on 14-of-27 shooting from the floor and 6-for-9 from the perimeter. Martin had a game high 23 while Thiam had 20. Martin had 15 points in the second half and Thiam had 13. Johnson and Marra combined for 24 rebounds as Johnson pulled down career-high 14 boards with four coming on the offensive end. Marra had 10 rebounds and six points.
The Storm withstood a 27-6 run by Rogers State to end the first half and returned the favor with a 15-2 run out of the opening gate of the second half to retake the lead at 36-35. After six more lead changes, SNU jumped out to a 52-46 lead with 5:53 left, but watched RSU score seven straight to retake the lead at 53-52 with 2:23 left to play.
It wasn't until Thiam hit a jumper with 54 seconds that SNU broke a brief scoring drought, to give the Storm the lead for good at 54-53. The Storm hit all six of their final free throws and held RSU to just two points in the final two minutes of the game.
The Crimson Storm continued their hot shooting from the outside hitting 6-for-12 from downtown and were 14-for-20 from the line. After turning the ball over 12 times in the first half, SNU coughed it up just four times in the second half. SNU also held RSU to just a 9-for-34 performance from the floor in the second half and gave up just one 3-pointer in the second half.
The Crimson Storm now get set to host John Brown, Monday, at 6 p.m. after the original game set for Thursday was postponed because of poor weather.
