GAC Championships Page
BETHANY, Okla. — For the first time in school history Southern Nazarene will enter the Great American Conference Championships as the top seed and will play Thursday night at 5:45 p.m.
For the third straight year, the Crimson Storm will draw Ouachita Baptist in the quarterfinals. Thursday night will mark the ninth time the Tigers and Storm have met the past three seasons. No. 8-seeded Ouachita has won both meetings in the quarterfinals the past two seasons. SNU has won four of the last five and swept the season series for the second straight year against the Tigers. The Storm are 10-4 all-time against Ouachita.
No. 13 SNU is having its best record since joining Division II at 24-2 and has just one blemish inside the GAC with a loss at Northwestern Oklahoma State. Coming into the conference tournament it holds a 13-1 record against the field this year and is 107-72 all-time against the tournament field. The Crimson Storm though have never reached the semifinals. SNU was the seventh seed in 2015 when it lost to East Central. The Storm were the sixth seed in 2016 and were the fourth seed last year.
On the same side of the bracket is No. 4 seed Southeastern Oklahoma State and No. 5 seed Arkansas Tech, who will play at noon Friday. SNU is 15-15 all-time against Southeastern and 7-7 against Tech. SNU has won three straight against the Savage Storm and swept the season series from both. Should the Storm get out of the quarterfinals they would play the winner of SOSU and ATU at noon Saturday.
The only team to knock off SNU in GAC play, Northwestern Oklahoma State, occupies the No. 2 seed on the other side of the bracket. The Rangers will play No. 7 seed Southern Arkansas Thursday at noon. SNU is 42-25 all-time against Northwestern and is 10-3 against Southern Arkansas. The Rangers have won four of the last five meetings with the Storm while SNU has won four straight against the Muleriders.
The final men's game Friday will pit No. 3 seed East Central against No. 6 seed Arkansas-Monticello at 2:15 p.m. SNU is 14-13 all-time against ECU and is 9-3 against UAM. The Storm hold a three-game winning streak against both teams.
The Championships finals are set for Sunday at 1 p.m.
