ADA, Oklahoma — Despite falling 91-83 to East Central Saturday afternoon in the final game of the regular season, Southern Nazarene's postseason fate had already been decided Thursday night after Henderson State lost at Ouachita Baptist.
 
SNU knew it had earned the school's first bid to the Great American Conference Thursday, and Saturday's game with the Tigers came down to what seed the Crimson Storm would end up with. After Southwestern Oklahoma State fell to Southeastern Oklahoma State, that meant SNU would take the seventh seed at the GAC Tournament with the loss to ECU.
 
No matter how the rest of the GAC games play out, that puts SNU right back against ECU Friday at 2:15 p.m. in the GAC Tournament to be played at Bartlesville High School.
 
The Crimson Storm (13-13, 9-11 GAC) had five players in double figures as Corey McCrary scored a career-high 18 points with a career-high five 3-pointers off of the bench. The junior went 5-for-9 from the outside and 6-for-13 from the field. He also had five rebounds. CJ Rodriguez added 16 points, eight rebounds and three assists while LB Willis had 15 points, fie rebounds and two steals. Francisco Hukill chipped in with 11 points while Jared Starkey had 10.
 
SNU shot 43.3 percent from the field as it hit 26-for-60 and was 10-for-31 from 3-point range. The Storm were also 21-for-26 at the free-throw line. The Tigers though hit 54.7 percent from the field and hit 26 free throws as they went to the line 37 times.
 
The Storm took it to the Tigers right out of the gate as SNU by jumping out to a 12-0 lead, but ECU got its answer late in the first half. The Tigers were down 27-17 with four minutes to play in the opening stanza, but closed with a 13-0 run to take a 30-27 lead at the half. East Central opened the second half with a 19-11 run to lead 49-38, but Corey McCrary hit back-to-back 3-pointers to cut it to 52-47 with 12:27 left.
 
ECU took its biggest lead of the game at 64-49 with a 12-2 run, but the Storm fired back with a 17-8 run, capped by a CJ Rodriguez trey, to make it 72-66 with 5:37 left to play.