BETHANY - The fifth-ranked Southern Nazarene men's basketball team shot 53% from the field and held the East Central Tigers to 32% shooting in the second half as they led by as many as 35 in a dominant 91-66 win over the ECU on Saturday afternoon at the Sawyer Center.
With the win, SNU has now won 21 straight games on their home floor, the second longest streak in SNU men's basketball history.
Junior
Jhonathan Dunn set a new career-record in 3-point field goals made with seven, good for second all-time in SNU history. Senior
Noah Starkey poured in 20 while junior
Micah Speight added a double-double as well.
It wa a shootout in the early going as both teams went back-and-forth, trading the lead all throughout the first 10 minutes.
With SNU leading 28-26 on a
Coleman Edwards made basket, the Crimson Storm caught fire while getting stops on the other end as Dunn connected on back-to-back 3-pointers to make it a 34-26 lead. After a pair of Tiger free throws,
Chris Stephens connected on a 3-pointer followed by a lay in by RJ Palmer to push the lead to 39-28.
Leading back eight with less than a minute to play, SNU got a dunk from Starkey followed by a pair of free throws from Speight to close the half with a 50-38 lead.
In the second half, SNU took the game over in the blink of an eye. After ECU got the opening bucket, the Crimson Storm went on an 11-0 run capped by a huge alley-oop from Speight to Dunn to open up a 61-40 lead. Speight added five points including a 3-pointer during the run and suddenly it was a 61-40 lead.
SNU did not stop there as the post took over in Starkey and Palmer, as the two combined for 19 points in the second half. A 3-pointer by Dunn, a lay-up from Starkey, and another 3-pointer from Speight got the lead to its largest of the game at 35 as Southern Nazarene was shooting close to 75% in the second half and running away with the contest.
As the game winded down, East Central went on a little 10-0 run to close the game as SNU finally cooled off, but it was one of the more dominant games that the Crimson Storm have played so far this year, going to 8-0 overall and 2-0 in the GAC.
Dunn finished with 25 points on 9 of 12 shooting including three rebounds, three assists, and three steals while Starkey added 20 points on 9 of 11 shooting and a block. Speight went for 14 points and 10 assists while Palmer scored 13.
Ashton Charles led the rebounded with seven with Stephens had five points, two steals, two blocks, and a monster dunk. Charles,
Brady Mulkey, and Edwards all had four points.
Da'Rion King led the way for the Tigers with 16 points while Tyler Arnold had 11 points and nine rebounds. The Crimson Storm held the GAC leading scorer, Cameron Talley, who came in averaging 25 points a game, to only eight points on 3 of 10 shooting.
Southern Nazarene returns to action on Thursday as they are on road until 2019. They will head to Durant to take on Southeastern Oklahoma State at 7:30 p.m.
