Box Score BETHANY, Okla. — The train just keeps rolling down the tracks as the hottest team in the Great American Conference picked up another win Thursday night. Southern Nazarene won its fifth straight game with an 83-69 win over East Central inside the Sawyer Center.
 
The Crimson Storm (13-10, 11-6 GAC) are now just a half game back of first place in the GAC.
 
Southern Nazarene could not have had a better first half performance as the Crimson Storm shot 55.6 percent from the field and went 10-for-16 from 3-point range in the first 20 minutes. The Storm hit 13 3-pointers total on the night. SNU shot 45.7 percent from the field and were efficient from the line hitting 77.8 percent.
 
"That was about as well as we could play offensively in the first half," said SNU Head Coach Adam Bohac. "We moved the ball well and hit open shots. It was very good first half. I thought we had good activity with our hands and guys were jumping to the ball. We were engaged defensively and tipped and deflected passes and got steals."
 
CJ Smith finished with 24 points on the night while Quan Conner had 18. Smith also had five rebounds, four assists and three steals while going 7-for-14 from the field, 3-for-6 from 3-point range and 7-for-10 at the line. Conner was also 3-for-6 from downtown and was 7-for-8 at the line. Conner picked up a career-high six steals on the night, which also ranks as the fourth most steals in a single game in school history. Francisco Hukill had 13 points off of the bench while Garrett Butler had 12 with four treys.
 
The Storm forced 25 turnovers and scored 27 points off those takeaways. SNU 's bench also outscored the Tiger's reserves 24-6.
 
SNU didn't trail the entire night and was off and running after a 20-9 run to start the game. The Storm held their biggest lead at 50-28 with 54 seconds left in the first half before taking a 50-30 lead into half. Smith put SNU on top 58-37 with 13:52 to left to play, but ECU answered with 10 straight to cut it to 58-47 midway through the second half. SNU stretched it to 19 at 68-49, but ECU again responded to get it to 76-65 with 2:22 remaining. That was as close as the Tigers came as SNU put it away.
 
"We turned it over a little bit to start the second half and we knew they were going to make a run," said Bohac. "I thought we played a little tentative waiting for them to make that run, instead of just playing and trusting it. We haven't played many games where we have been up like that, but we will learn from that tonight."
 
The Storm now get set to travel to Southeastern Oklahoma State for a 7:30 p.m. GAC game Saturday.