Box Score

LUBBOCK, Texas — Lubbock Christian's heels will be a little sore tomorrow morning as Southern Nazarene kept nipping at the Lady Chaps all night long. The Crimson Storm never could catch LCU though as SNU dropped its first Sooner Athletic Conference game this year with a 68-63 loss inside the Rip Griffin Center.

The Crimson Storm (11-3, 5-1 SAC) led just twice the entire game and never could run down the Lady Chaps (8-5, 5-2 SAC) as LCU matched SNU nearly bucket for bucket.

Free throw shooting and an unusually cold night from 3-point range plagued Southern Nazarene all night. The Crimson Storm shot just 5-for-18 (27.8) from downtown after coming into the game as the NAIA's best shooting team from beyond the arc. SNU was also 12-for-21 from the charity stripe.

Abbey Marra scored a career-high 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for her ninth double-double of the season and posted five blocks to lead the way for SNU. Oumoul Thiam added 15 points and four boards while Logan Martin had 10 points and eight rebounds to go with four assists. Jamie Bottger also scored eight points and pulled down six rebounds.

Lubbock Christian was nearly perfect from the free-throw line, going 24-for-26, missing just one attempt each half. Four Lady Chaps scored in double figures as they held SNU at bay on every run the Crimson Storm made.

SNU led at 6-4 and at 10-8, but never led from that point on. LCU led by no more than nine in the first half and the Storm cut it to 32-27 at the break. The Lady Chaps took it out to a 44-33 with a 12-6 run to take their biggest lead of the game. SNU cut it to 50-46 and then got within three at 55-52 with 5:53 left, but that was as close as the Storm came. Bethany hit 12 straight free throws in the final four minutes of the game to seal it.

SNU will now take a brief trip up north in the Texas panhandle to take on Wayland Baptist, Saturday, at 1 p.m. to close out the West Texas road trip.