BETHANY, Okla. — A match up of what has been the top two teams in the Great American Conference up to this point lived up to the billing as Southern Nazarene edged Arkansas Tech, 85-82, Saturday inside the Sawyer Center.
 
In arguably the most physical game all year in Bethany, the Crimson Storm (10-1, 7-0 GAC) and Wonder Boys (10-2, 4-2 GAC) put on a show. Southern Nazarene shot 50 percent from the field, including nine 3-pointers, while Arkansas Tech shot 46 percent from the field and had 10 treys. Each team went 14-for-17 from the line. The Wonder Boys out rebounded the Storm 33-30, but SNU had 16 second chance points off nine offensive rebounds while ATU had 14 off 11. SNU scored 14 points off 15 Tech turnovers, but the Wonder Boys scored 17 off 13 SNU miscues. Tech's bench outscored SNU's 30-18, but the Storm owned the pain with 42 of their points coming inside. ATU had 36 points in the paint.
 
Noah Starkey was just two points shy of tying his career-high with 23 points. He was 8-of-11 from the field and was a perfect 7-for-7 at the line. He also added five rebounds and had a block. Micah Speight and Jhonathan Dunn combined for 33 points as Speight had 17 and Dunn had 16. Speight also eight assists and three steals. Zach Johnson had nine points, six assists, four rebounds and two steals off of the bench. Ashton Charles also scored seven points off of the bench.
 
Tech led by as much as seven three different times in the first half. The Wonder Boys led 14-7 early before the Storm went on an 8-0 run, capped by an Ashton Charles 3-pointer, to lead 15-14. ATU though answered with a 10-2 run to lead 24-17. The Wonder Boys led 29-24 with 7:24 left in the first when Quaylon Newton got a dunk to start an 11-3 run as the Storm led 35-32 with 3:47 to play.
 
The Storm took a 43-40 lead at the half and pushed it 45-40 right out of the gate on a Speight to Chris Stephens alley-oop. Tech answered with a 9-2 run to lead 49-47 with 16:07 to play, and were up 56-55 with 11:56 left when Stephens drained a trey to ignite a 14-3 run. That gave SNU its biggest lead of the night at 69-59 with 8:16 left.
 
The Wonder Boys didn't go away though and answered with a 16-5 run to take a 75-74 advantage with 4:32 to play. Dunn gave the lead back to SNU on a traditional three-point play and SNU eventually took an 82-77 lead with 1:42 remaining. ATU answered again with five straight to tie it at 82 with 50 seconds left.
 
The Storm put the ball in the hands of Dunn who lofted a trey just over the hands of a Tech defender with 29 seconds left from the right side and that found the bottom of the net for the eventual game-winning goal.