Box Score BETHANY, Okla. — Whatever Southern Nazarene Head Coach Lori Carter said to her team at halftime Thursday night lit a major fire under No. 15 SNU in the second half as the Crimson Storm came out blazing with a 30-point win after leading by just three at the half.
Southern Nazarene (8-3) won its third straight game and fourth in five games with an 87-57 win over Evangel (Mo.) and outscored the Crusaders 46-19 in the second half. SNU led just 41-38 at the midway point and allowed Evangel to shoot 53.8 percent from the field and 62.5 percent from 3-point range, but SNU turned up the defense allowing the Crusaders to go just 5-for-29 from the field in the second half and 0-for-7 from outside the perimeter in the final 20 minutes. On the other hand SNU shot 56.7 percent (17-30) from the field in the second half.
The Crimson Storm dominated the paint outscoring EU 34-22 and scored 23 points off of 19 Crusaders turnovers. The Storm bench also came up big with 35 points compared to just 13 from Evangel's reserves. The biggest player off of the bench was
Annie Kassongo who had career-high 14 points and six rebounds as she went 6-for-9 from the field.
Logan Martin led the way for SNU with 17 points, four rebounds and four assists and had a trio of 3-pointers.
Sharmeda Johnson added 11 points, four rebounds and three blocks.
Abbey Marra,
Marsha Durr and
Oumoul Thiam all had eight points. It was a career-high for Durr who also dished out a season-high five assists.
Katie Beebe also added 11 points and did it all in the final 10 minutes of play.
SNU never trailed the entire game, but didn't gain control until the second half. The Storm looked to be running away late in the first half with a 30-17 lead, but Evangel fired back with a 16-4 run to cut it to 34-33 with just 1:32 left. SNU scored the next five to take a 39-33 lead, but EU closed with an 5-2 run to make it 41-38 at the break.
It was all Crimson Storm in the second half as SNU opened with a 19-2 run to lead 60-40 and never looked back.
Southern Nazarene will now gear up for the Sooner Athletic Season the rest of the way. Up first is No. 17 Lubbock Christian who swept the season series last year. SNU hosts LCU, Saturday, at 1 p.m.
