Box Score OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — With eight games left in the season Southern Nazarene was two games under .500. Over the last nine games, including Friday night's 75-61 win over Dallas Baptist, SNU has gone 7-2 and now is just one game away from going to the NCCAA National Tournament.
 
Anton Kankaanpaa scored a career-high 17 points as the freshman buried a career-high five 3-pointers, going 5-for-7 from downtown and 6-for-9 from the field. CJ Smith scored a game-high 18 and added five rebounds, four assists and two blocks. Quan Conner also had 17 points, four rebounds, three assists and two blocks.
 
Southern Nazarene blistered the nets, hitting 53.2 percent from the field and was 11-for-23 from 3-point range. SNU also went 14-for-17 from the free-throw line. The Storm turned the ball over just 11 times, giving up just six points off of turnovers. SNU held a DBU team that hit 15 treys the night before, to just 7-for-21 from outside. The Patriots also got to the line just five times.
 
The Storm pretty much controlled the game from midway through the first half. Dallas Baptist had a 7-2 lead early, but it didn't take long for SNU to make that disappear. From that point through the end of the first half, SNU went on a 32-14 run to take a 34-21 lead at the half.
 
The Storm led by as much as 18 in the second half at 48-30 with 14:30 left to play on another Kankaanpaa trey. DBU though began to whittle away at the lead. The Patriots cut it to five at 64-59 with 29-16 run with 2:56 left, but SNU got a big trey from Conner and a slash to the basket by Smith to take a 69-59 lead with 1:57 left and hit free throws the rest of the way.
 
The Crimson Storm will now take on Colorado Christian, Saturday, at 4 p.m. in the title game back inside the Eagles' Nest at Oklahoma Christian. SNU ended CCU's season last year in the first round, and the Cougars' Kyle Weaver scored 47 in the semifinals against Mid-America Christian. Weaver had 13 against SNU last year.