MONTICELLO, Ark. — Southern Nazarene started off the new calendar year with its first conference win of the season with an 82-65 win over Arkansas-Monticello Thursday night.
 
The game started in a back and forth fashion as both teams traded baskets in the opening four minutes to put the score at 10-9 in favor of Arkansas-Monticello (4-5, 1-4 GAC). The Cotton Blossoms would put together an 8-3 run to put the score at 18-12 with 2:44 remaining in the first quarter. The Storm (4-5, 1-4 GAC) answered that run with one of their own as SNU scored the final five points of the quarter, highlighted by an Abby Boyd jumper to put the score at 18-17 to the end the first quarter.
 
The second quarter belonged to Southern Nazarene as they opened the quarter on a 12-4 run to put the score at 29-20 with 6:11 remaining in the first half. Rachel Doerneman scored six of the first 12 points of the quarter for SNU. The Storm finished the second quarter on a 12-8 run, capped by a Danielle Gaddis layup to put the score at 41-28 going into intermission.
 
Southern Nazarene shot 41.2 percent in the first half on 14-of-36 shooting. Arkansas-Monticello shot 36.1 percent on 13-of-36 shooting. The Storm also hit 12-of-14 from the free throw line in the opening half. Boyd led the Crimson Storm at the half with 11 points on 3-of-7 shooting. The Crimson Storm did a good job limiting Treasure Evans, who is ranked sixth in the GAC in scoring, to just nine points on 4-of-10 shooting in the first half.
 
Both teams played solid third quarter as SNU shot 42.9 percent and UAM shot 40.0 percent. The Storm built their largest lead of the game at 15 points on two separate occasions in the third quarter. However, on both occasions the Cotton Blossoms cut the lead back down to 12 points. At the end of the third quarter, the Storm led 58-46.
 
Arkansas-Monticello got off to a hot start in the fourth quarter, opening the quarter on a 11-5 run. The run trimmed the Storm's 13-point lead to six points as SNU led 63-57 with 5:41 remaining in regulation. That's as close as UAM would get as SNU was able to finish the fourth quarter on a 19-8 run and put the game away.
 
The Storm finished the game shooting 44.0 percent on 27-of-61 shooting, while Arkansas-Monticello shot 36.0 percent on 24-of-67 shooting. Neither team shot the 3-point shot well as SNU shot 25.0 percent and UAM shot 28.0 percent. The Storm were 25-of-31 from the line. SNU dominated the paint as they out rebounded the Cotton Blossoms 47-29 and out scored UAM 46-26 in the paint. Southern Nazarene also forced nine turnovers and tallied 17 points off those miscues.
 
Boyd led the Crimson Storm with 17 points on 4-of-12 shooting and 8-of-9 shooting from the free throw line. Boyd also dished out a career high nine assists and added six rebounds. Irene Perez scored a career high 16 points and added five rebounds. Doerneman scored 16 points and tallied five rebounds. Adrienne Berry was the only other SNU player to reach double figures, as she added 12 points and three rebounds.