BETHANY, Okla. — After taking a tough loss to open the season the night before, Southern Nazarene answered the bell Saturday as it knocked off Minnesota State-Moorhead, 91-87.
 
The Crimson Storm (1-1) shot 53.2 percent from the floor and went 11-for-23 from 3-point range. After shooting under 70 percent from the line Friday, SNU went 14-for-16 at the line and out rebounded the Dragons (1-1) 32-22 and that resulted in 16 second-chance points for SNU.
 
Deshon Portley and Jhonathan Dunn led the way for the Storm as Portley had a season-high 26 while Dunn had 23 off of the bench. Portley went 8-for-12 from the field and 6-for-9 from 3-point range. He also hit 4-for-5 at the free-throw line. Dunn was also 8-for-12 from the floor and went 3-for-6 from the charity stripe. He added four rebounds, three assists and went 4-for-4 at the line. Noah Starkey nearly matched his career-high from the night before with 15 points as he was 7-for-11. He also had six rebounds and two blocks.
 
The Crimson Storm controlled nearly the entire first half. It trailed 11-7 early but a Portley layup ignited a 28-12 run as SNU took its biggest lead of the game at 35-23.
 
SNU led 40-28 when Moorhead scored seven straight to cut it to 40-35 with 2:48 left in the first half. A Micah Speight three and a Starkey layup pushed back to 45-35 and SNU eventually took a 52-42 lead into the half.
 
The Storm led 61-49 with 15:20 left to play when the Dragons started to chip away. Moorhead took its first lead of the second half at 78-76 with 6:09 left to play and pushed it to 81-77 with 4:32 to play to complete a 32-16 run.
 
SNU answered with a Portley trey, an LB Willis jumper and a Dunn trey to take an 85-81 lead with 1:54 remaining and didn't give the lead back.