BETHANY, Okla. — For the second straight year Southern Nazarene opened Great American Conference play with two wins as SNU knocked off the defending GAC regular season champion Ouachita 87-74 Saturday afternoon.
 
LB Willis and CJ Rodriguez scored a combined 46 points for the Crimson Storm (2-2, 2-0 GAC) as Willis increased his season-high set Thursday night with 24 points and Rodriguez had a season-high 22 points. Willis went 8-for-12 from the field and 7-for-8 at the charity stripe. Rodriguez was 5-for-10 from the field and 4-for-5 from 3-point range. He also had six assists, four rebounds and two steals.
 
C.J. White added 12 points, seven rebounds and three blocks. Francisco Hukill also had 10 points and four assists. The Storm shot 55.3 percent from the field and were 12-for-23 from 3-point range. SNU also out rebounded the Tigers 34-28.
 
The Tigers (1-3, 1-1 GAC) came into the night as the best 3-point shooting team in the GAC at nearly 50 percent per game, but were held to 36.8 percent from beyond the arc.
 
SNU trailed just twice time the entire night and the first one was at 3-2. The Storm led 13-12 early in the first half when an Anton Kankaanpaa 3-pointer sparked a 9-0 run to give SNU a 22-12 lead with 9:23 left in the first. The Tigers kept within single digits before a Garrett Butler trey made it 33-23 with 1:57 left in the first half. Ouachita closed the first half with an 84 run to make it 37-31 at the break.
 
The Storm pushed it back to 51-42 early in the second half before the Tigers scored 11 straight to take a 53-32 lead, but that lasted just nine seconds as Butler drained one of his three 3-pointers to give the lead right back to the Storm. Ouachita stayed in striking distance and were down 65-63 before a two free throws from Willis led to a barrage of threes by SNU. The Storm hit three straight 3-pointers in a span of a minute to take the lead from 70-65 to 79-67 and that was enough room for SNU to hold the Tigers off for the win.