Box Score

BETHANY, Okla. — For the second time this year on a game postponed by poor weather, Southern Nazarene staved off a different time schedule and a scrappy Wayland Baptist team for a 74-65 win.

“It was a great win in a broken up week in weird week with the weather and all the other different things going on,” said SNU head coach Adam Bohac. “Wayland is a team that is much better than their record indicates. They are a big physical team and we are excited to get out of here with a win.”

Xavier Alexander and Jon West led the way for the Crimson Storm (19-4, 12-3 SAC) as they combined for 32 points as each scored 16. Alexander added eight rebounds while West had six and each had three assists. It was the third straight game that Alexander dropped in 16 points and the senior guard has shot 12-for-17 from the charity stripe over the past two games. He was also 8-of-11 against the Pioneers (7-15, 2-13 SAC). West, who was averaging 8.9 points a game as of Jan. 15, has averaged 17.2 points a contest over the past six games.

“Jon's a great player and that's the type of game we are expecting him to play,” said Bohac. “Over the last month and a half, he has been our most consistent player. He can do a lot of different things for us and had another all around great night.”

A.J. Thomas also had a hot hand from beyond the arc as we went 4-for-6 from 3-point range and was a perfect 3-for-3 in the first half. The senior guard finished with 14 on the night. Jeremy Lightfoot also added 12 points as he was nearly perfect from the field and the line going 4-for-5 from both and chipped in with six boards and three assists.

SNU was just one point away from having all five starters in double figures as Horace McGloster had nine points to go with eight boards.

The Storm took it to Wayland Baptist on the boards as SNU pulled down 33 rebounds compared to just 15 from WBU. SNU scored 16 second chance points off of 15 offensive rebounds. SNU also shot 45.1 percent (23-51) from the field and were 74.2 percent (23-31) from the charity stripe.

SNU and Wayland traded three leads in the first half and had six ties as the Storm took a 32-28 lead at the break. The Crimson Storm opened the second half on a 10-0 run as McGloster had half of those points in that run as SNU took a 42-28 lead. The Storm held the 14-point lead twice more with the latter coming at 48-34 before the Pioneers scored seven straight to cut it to 48-41 with 9:28 left. Wayland continued to whittle away at the lead and were down just 60-54 with less than four minutes left, but the Storm went 12-15 from the line in the final 3:20 of the game to seal the victory.

The Storm will now turn around in less than 24 hours and will host Lubbock Christian tomorrow at 3 p.m.