Box Score

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — Southern Nazarene stared down the barrel of its third straight loss, but breathed a sigh of relief at the final buzzer with a 75-74 win over Mid-America Christian.

The Crimson Storm (22-7, 15-6 SAC) saw a 17-point halftime lead evaporate in the second half as the Evangels (13-14, 9-12 SAC) gave one final push to try to stay in the hunt for a Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament berth.

SNU secured at least fourth place and with a win Saturday night can lock up second place in the conference.

For the second time in three weeks, A.J. Thomas lit it up from the outside, draining five 3-pointers he went 6-for-7 from the field, 5-for-6 from 3-point range and 7-for-8 from the line to scored a game-high 24 points. Thomas was one of three Storm to score in double figures as Xavier Alexander notched 17 points as well as he went 4-for-10 from the field and 9-for-13 at the line. C.J. Henry added 11 points as well. Jon West scored eight points and chipped in with five assists and five rebounds as well.

SNU made the most of every shot, hitting 50 percent (22-44) from the field and 53.8 percent (7-13) from downtown. What plagued SNU was the 29 turnovers, 16 of which were in the second half, that allowed MACU back into the ball game late.

The Evangels did hit a shot from the perimeter and went to the line just five times in the first half, but nailed four treys and went 11-for-15 from the charity stripe in the second half.

SNU led 40-23 heading into the second half and Jeremy Lightfoot gave SNU a 19-point lead with a bucket into the pain less than a minute into the second half, but the double-digit lead was quickly erased as MACU went on a 31-13 run over the next 12 minutes to cut the deficit to one at 55-54.

The Evangels got within one twice more before eventually taking their first lead of the game on a Brandon Williams shot in the paint to make it 63-61 with 4:14 left. Thomas answered with a trey to give SNU the one-point lead, but MACU answered right back with a Williams three to make it 66-64.

Mid-America Christian took their last lead at 67-65 on a Camilo Valencia free throw, but SNU scored four straight to lead 69-67 with 2:51 remaining. SNU twice held leads of three points late with the final one coming at 74-71 when Williams hit another clutch trey to tie the game at 74 with 27 seconds left. Alexander then was fouled with five seconds left and hit the second of two three throws for the 75-74 lead. After a timeout, MACU's Darius Gregory put up a three that missed and secured the win for SNU.

The Crimson Storm now close out the regular season by hosting Oklahoma City for a 5 p.m. SAC game as five seniors play their final games inside the Sawyer Center.