BETHANY, Okla. — For most teams a loss on senior night leaves quite a sour taste, but what if you don't have any seniors? No. 18 Southern Nazarene may have dropped a 66-60 decision to No. 2 Oklahoma City in the final game of the regular season, but by no means was it the end of the line for any of the Crimson Storm.
Thanks to a Rogers State upset over Lubbock Christian right before the game started, the Crimson Storm (24-6, 18-4 SAC) knew they could finish no worse then second in the conference, but the pressure was still added as a win over the Stars (25-2, 20-2 SAC) would mean a tie for the Sooner Athletic Conference title.
Abbey Marra notched her 16th double-double of the season with a game-high 20 points and a career-high 19 rebounds, eight of which were offensive, as she shot 7-for-11 from the floor and 6-for-9 from the charity stripe.
Logan Martin also added 14 points as she was 3-of-5 from beyond the arc and added six assists and five rebounds as well.
Southern Nazarene shot 40 percent (20-for-50) from the floor, but struggled from deep hitting just 4-for-16 from outside. SNU out rebounded OCU 44-38 and gave up just 12 second chance points, but 23 turnovers were just too much to overcome for SNU.
The Storm led just once the entire game and that was at 2-0 to start the game. Despite holding just one lead, SNU was never out of the game. The Storm trailed 18-17 with 10:11 left in the first half before OCU took a 32-21 lead. SNU trailed 34-23 with 4:57 left when Sharmeda Johnson started a 9-0 half ending run with a bucket in the pain as the Storm closed the lead 34-32 at the half.
The Stars though took double digit leads several time in the second half, but each time SNU ran down OCU to cut the lead back to single digits. The closest SNU came was with 3:31 left in the game when Audra Skimbo capped an 11-3 run to cut it to 60-56. OCU though hit late shots down the stretch to pull off the win.
The Crimson now get set for the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament, March 3-5, at Oklahoma City University. The Storm will take on the seventh-seed in the first round Thursday. Times and pairing will be announced Sunday morning.
