Box Score
BETHANY, Okla. — Forty minutes: that's what Southern Nazarene University Head Coach Lori Carter has been asking of her team all season. At times SNU has shown signs of brilliance, but had yet to put two great halves of basketball together, until Monday night.
In what was easily the Crimson Storm's (15-4, 9-2 SAC) best game of the season, 20th-ranked SNU routed No. 18 John Brown (15-5, 9-3 SAC), 82-49, to win its third straight and close out the first half of the Sooner Athletic Conference season in second place.
“I'm so proud of the way we played tonight,” said Carter. “Everyone was playing their role. We finally played two halves. That's something we haven't done consistently all year.”
Four players scored in double figures as Logan Martin led the way with a game-high 21 points. Martin went 7-for-14 from the field and 3-for-5 from 3-point range. She also pulled down seven rebounds and handed out four assists.
Sharmeda Johnson notched her third double-double of the season with 10 points and 10 rebounds, her second straight game with double-figure rebounds. Oumoul Thiam added 12 points and four rebounds while Audra Skimbo scored 11 points off the bench. Nine of Skimbo's points came in the second half.
Abbey Marra just missed her 12th double-double by two points with eight and was two boards shy of a career-high with 15.
“I thought that rebounds and getting big stops would be the key tonight and we got both done,” said Carter. “I thought we showed a lot of patience on offense and did a better job of taking care of the basketball. We got some transition layups and scored off turnovers.”
SNU out rebounded JBU, 54-29, and scored 20 second-chance points. The Storm also scored 19 points off of turnovers and more than doubled the Golden Eagles in the paint, 38-16.
SNU led wire-to-wire and started to put the game away early. Leading 23-21 with 7:25 left in the first half, Marra sank a pair of free throws and hit a jumper to score the first four points of a 19-4 run to close out the first half.
The lead never came back to single digits the rest of the night.
The win was the ninth straight over the Golden Eagles. SNU hasn't lost to John Brown since the 2005 season.
The Crimson Storm will start the second half of the season Thursday night when they host St. Gregory's for a 6 p.m. contest before a return trip to Oklahoma Baptist, Saturday.
