BETHANY, Okla. — Southern Nazarene turned the corner on the halfway point of the Great American Conference season with an 84-78 win over Ouachita.
 
The win completes the season sweep of the Tigers (8-8, 6-6 GAC) and propels the Crimson Storm (9-8, 6-5 GAC) ahead of Ouachita into the sixth spot in the GAC standings.
 
The young guns led the way for SNU as Jhonathan Dunn and Noah Starkey combined for 33 points. Dunn finished with 18 pints to go with four rebounds. He was 5-for-10 from the field and 7-for-9 at the line. Starkey recorded his fifth double-double of the season with 15 points and 10 rebounds as he was 4-for-5 from the field and 7-for-10 at the line.
 
Deshon Portley added 14 points and four rebounds as he was a perfect 6-for-6 at the charity stripe while LB Willis notched 11 points, four boards and three assists.
 
The Storm hit a season-high 28 free throws on the night and were 77.8 percent from the stripe. That was a season-high for GAC games and is the second highest percentage of the season. SNU shot 47.2 percent from the field as well.
 
SNU trailed just three times in the first half and didn't trail by more than two. SNU jumped out to a 13-6 lead early before the Tigers answered with a 9-0 run to lead 17-15. The two were tied at 28 with 2:03 in the half when Quaylon Newton scored six straight to make it 34-28 before LB Willis banked an off balance shot in the lane to put SNU up 36-28 at the half.
 
The Storm pushed their lead to 44-30 to make it a 16-2 run in all that was capped by a Deshon Portley jumper. SNU matched its biggest lead of the game at 46-32 and were up 50-37 with 14:14 remaining when Ouachita when on a 14-5 run to cut it to 55-51 with 12:05 left in the game. SNU pushed it back to 68-57 as Noah Starkey capped a 13-6 run. The Tigers though wouldn't go away as they answered with a 10-2 run to cut the deficit to 72-69 with 2:52 left.  That was as close as Ouachita came the rest of the way.