FORT SMITH, Ark. - The fifth-ranked Southern Nazarene men's basketball team turned a one-point halftime lead into a 15-point lead in the second half while holding off a late rally from Arkansas-Fort Smith to earn an 84-78 win on Saturday evening at the Stubblefield Center.
With the win, SNU goes to 6-0 on the season with Great American Conference play beginning on Thursday night.
The Crimson Storm shot 31 of 64 (48%) from the field including 59% in the second half. SNU was only 6 of 20 (30%) from deep, but an impressive 16 of 20 (80%) from the charity stripe. UAFS was held to 24 of 66 (36%) from the field, but shot 13 of 27 (48%) from deep to keep them in it.
After the Lions took an early 5-0 lead, the Crimson Storm responded with a 13-0 run thanks to four points from senior
Noah Starkey, 3-pointers from
Micah Speight and RJ Palmer, and a 3-point play by
Chris Stephens. However, UAFS closed the gap with a 10-3 run and the first half was on with SNU leading 16-15.
The Crimson Storm played sold defense, holding the Lions to under 34% shooting in the first half; however, UAFS answered from the 3-point line, connecting on eight 3-pointers in the half to eventually open up a 36-31 lead with less than two minutes to play.
SNU closed the half on a 6-0 run including a running jumper with two seconds to play by Jhonthan Dunn to take a 37-36 lead into half.
The Crimson Storm got a couple of big dunks from Dunn early in the second half, using a 13-2 run to take their biggest lead, at the time, at 56-44. SNU used quick transition buckets in the paint and tenacious defense, especially from Starkey, to build the lead as well as six points from Dunn during the run.
SNU eventually built that lead out to a game-high 15 as they were red hot from the field throughout the half while holding UAFS to under 35% shooting.
The Crimson Storm got 10 points from Dunn and
Logan Hicks in the second half and maintained a double digit lead for most of the second half, leading by 13 with 55 seconds to play. The Lions sank a few 3-pointers late in the game while playing the foul game, but it was not enough as Southern Nazarene held off any threat to escape Fort Smith with the win and a 2-0 weekend.
Dunn followed up his 30 points night with 20 against the Lions on 8 of 15 shooting while Speight added 13 points, eight assists, and five rebounds. Starkey was excellent with 12 points, 13 rebounds, and a career-high seven blocks. Hicks added 12 points off the bench while Stephens scored nine and Palmer pitched in eight. Senior
Zach Johnson had four points and two steals in the contest.
Tyler Williams led UAFS with 18 points while Seth Hawley, Chris Crawford, and David Ward all had 15 points. Crawford added six assists and four steal.s
Southern Nazarene has won nine straight regular season games and will return to where they lost their last regular season contest, making the trip to Alva to battle Northwestern Oklahoma State. It took a 3-pointer at the buzzer from the Rangers last season to give SNU their only GAC loss, 53-52. The Crimson Storm and Rangers will tip things off at 7:30 PM.
