Box Score
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — Through the regular season Southern Nazarene had no answer for Lubbock Christian , but Friday night was a different story as 18th-ranked SNU finally spoke up with a 75-67 win over the 24th-ranked Lady Chaps.
The win propels the Crimson Storm (26-6) into the finals of the Sooner Athletic Tournament for first time since 2007 when SNU knocked off Oklahoma City in the finals.
Sharmeda Johnson led the way for the Crimson Storm with a game-high 18 points and pulled down six rebounds as she went 6-for-7 from both the floor and from free throw line. Logan Martin, who only took three shots in the first half, scored all 10 of her points in the second half and didn't attempt a single 3-pointer. She nearly had a double-double with eight rebounds. Oumoul Thiam also came up big for the Storm with 14 points, five assists and four rebounds. Ashley Mantooth scored 11 points off the bench.
Much like the Lady Chaps (21-9) did in the previous two meetings, SNU was held to a low percentage from beyond the arc as the Storm hit just one trey. The Storm also almost doubled up LCU in turnovers giving up the ball 20 times compared to just 11 times for LCU.
The difference though came in couple of different areas as the Storm hit 52.6 percent (20-38) from the floor, 61.1 percent (11-18) in the second half , and missed only three of their 37 free throws, hitting 91.9 percent from the charity stripe. SNU held the Lady Chaps to just 39.3 percent shooting from the floor and out rebounded LCU 35-22. Lubbock Christian shot 76.9 percent from the line, but only got to the line 13 times.
Lubbock Christian led by as much as 13 points in the first half holding a 33-20 lead with 2:03 left in the opening period. Mantooth scored the first two of six points with a bucket before Thiam scored the final two to bring the Storm within seven at 33-26 at the half.
LCU pushed its lead back to 10 at 38-28 early in the second half and led 51-44 with 9:26 left before SNU began to chip away. Johnson twice cut it to five with a bucket in the paint and a free throw and made it a 53-49 game with another free throw with 7:47 left. Johnson brought the Storm within two at 53-51, but the Lady Chaps answered right back to push the lead back out to five at 58-53 with 5:10 left.
Then came the final charge from the Storm.
Martin buried two straight free throws before hitting a lay up to make it 58-57 and brought SNU the closest it had been since the 11:19 mark in the first half. The junior guard then stepped to the line after getting fouled on a trey and hit all three to five SNU its first lead since early in the first half at 60-58. SNU didn't trail from that point on as they outscored Lubbock Christian 22-9 in the final five minutes of the game.
The Crimson Storm will go for the schools ninth Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament Title when they take on Rogers State, at 4 p.m., inside the Abe Lemmons arena.
