Box Score
BETHANY, Okla. — Southern Nazarene came into the final game of the regular season needing a little help from Lubbock Christian, which it, got and then held off a scrappy Oklahoma City team with a 71-69 win to secure the second seed in the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament.
The Crimson Storm (23-7, 16-6 SAC) needed every point on Senior Day as four players scored in double figures, including
A.J. Thomas who notched 18 points with four 3-pointers and went 6-for-6 from the line. He also had three assists and three rebounds.
Xavier Alexander, Jeremy Lighfoot and
Jon West all scored 11 points, as Alexander was one rebound short of a double-double with nine boards while West had eight rebounds. Alexander also had four assists and West had five.
Daniel White also notched eight points, as he was perfect from the floor and the line going 2-for-2 from the field and 4-for-4 from the charity stripe.
Neither team held a double-digit lead the entire game as the two exchanged 14 leads and tied 10 different times.
After SNU took a 34-33 lead into the half, the Storm opened the second half with a 14-8 run to lead 48-41 on a Thomas trey before Alexander gave the Storm a 52-43 advantage with 12:27 remaining.
Milos Milosevic helped the Storm match its biggest lead of the game at 54-45 just a minute later with a bucket in the paint, but the Stars answered with a 14-0 run to take a 59-54 lead with 6:18 to play.
Thomas cut the lead to two with a 3-pointers before Alexander and West then tied the game at 61 with back-to-back buckets. Thomas gave SNU the lead for good with his final trey and the Storm were able to hold off the Stars with seven straight free throws in the final 22 seconds.
The Crimson Storm shot 41.8 percent (23-for-55) from the field and were 8-for-23 from beyond the arc. SNU also went 17-for-23 from the line and 15-for-20 in the second half.
Southern Nazarene will now prepare for the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament, March 3-5, at Oklahoma City University. The Storm knows that it will play Oklahoma Christian, Thursday, in the first round, but no time has been set yet.
