WEATHERFORD, Okla. — Southern Nazarene locked up a top-half seed in the Great American Conference Championships Monday night with an 82-55 win at Southwestern Oklahoma State.
 
The win guarantees, at worst, the No. 4 seed for the Crimson Storm (16-10, 13-7 GAC) and SNU could move up to the No. 3 seed if a couple of chips fell its way. It also set a program- high for wins in the GAC at 13 and matches the longest winning streak of the year at four.
 
Deshon Portley continued his hot streak as the senior poured in 16 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the field. He also had six rebounds and was 4-for-7 from 3-point range. Jhonathan Dunn also nabbed 12 points and nine rebounds to just miss his second straight double-double. He was 5-for-7 from the field 2-for-3 from beyond the arc. LB Willis chipped in with 12 points on 4-of-8 shooting from the floor and was 2-for-3 from deep. He also added four assists and 3 rebounds. Chris Stephens also notched a career-high with 10 points.
 
It took less than 10 minutes for SNU to build an insurmountable lead as it raced out to a 29-7 advantage by the 11:09 mark in the first half. The Storm led by 22 on multiple occasions and were up 37-15, before Southwestern used a 10-0 run to cut it to 37-25 with 4:08 left in the half. SNU answered with nine straight to end the half and took a 46-25 lead at the break.
 
SNU quickly pushed the lead to 65-30 in the second half and the route was on from there.
 
The Storm finished at 55.4 percent from the field and were 12-for-29 from 3-point range. It was the sixth time this year SNU has drained double-digit 3-pointers and was just one off of the season-high. It was also 8-for-10 from the line. Southern Nazarene turned the ball over a season-high 23 times, but scored more points off of SWOSU's 16 turnovers (26) than the Bulldogs scored off of SNU turnovers (24). SNU also out rebounded Southwestern 44-30.