Box Score EDMOND, Okla. — Southern Nazarene led by as much as 14 points early in the second half, but Central Oklahoma's Josh Gibbs scored 24 second half points as the Bronchos picked up an 82-78 win over SNU.
 
The Bronchos (5-1) scored 55 points in the second half and shot 60.6 percent from the field in the final 20 minutes to overcome a 27.8 performance in the second half. The Crimson Storm (2-4) had all 10 players that played score as CJ Smith led the way with 18 points and added nine rebounds as well. Francisco Hukill had a career-high 14 points and added four rebounds as he went 6-for-8 from the floor and 2-for-4 from 3-point range. LB Willis added 11 points as well.
 
The Storm shot 54.5 percent from the field 56.3 percent from 3-point range (9-16), but turned it over 17 times giving up 23 points off of takeaways. The Bronchos also got to the line more than twice the amount SNU did. Southern Nazarene shot just 14 free throws while UCO shot 30. The Bronchos also had just seven turnovers. The Storm out rebounded UCO 39-37, but the Bronchos had 17 boards on the offensive glass.
 
Southern Nazarene led the entire first half and went on a 15-4 run in the final six minutes to take a 40-27 lead at the break. The Storm led 50-36 with 16:24 to play when UCO went on a 24-7 run to take its first lead of the night at 60-57 with 10:01 to play.
 
The Storm tied the game one more time at 65-65 with 7:09 to play, but never regained the lead. The Bronchos stretched it to 79-71 with 1:59 to play before SNU made one final run and cut it to 80-78 on a Willis trey with five seconds left. UCO though got two free throws to ice it with less than two seconds to play.
 
The Crimson Storm now will play Oklahoma Christian Saturday, at UCO, for a 2 p.m. non-conference game.