BETHANY, Okla. — Defense is normally a pretty strong emphasis for head coach
Trent May, but Southern Nazarene took it to another level on Thursday night in a 48-36 win over Arkansas-Monticello.
The 36 points allowed is a season-low for the Crimson Storm (8-9, 7-4 GAC) as they held the Blossoms (5-11, 4-7 GAC) to 21.4 percent shooting in the contest and forced 14 turnovers out of UAM. It's the first time since the 2010-11 season that SNU has held an opponent to under 40 points in a game.
The Storm committed 21 turnovers in the game, but backed that up by shooting 44 percent from behind the three-point line. SNU out-rebounded Monticello 37-34 in the game and tallied 18 points in the point. The win moves Southern Nazarene to 5-1 inside the Sawyer Center and the Crimson Storm have now won three straight, including six of their last seven.
Senior guard
Adrienne Berry scored a game-high 14 points on 5-of-12 shooting and 2-for-4 from behind the arc. She also added four rebounds and two blocks in the game as well. Sophomore
Abby Niehues was the anchor of the Storm defense as she totaled 12 points, seven rebounds, and five blocks. Niehues was also a perfect 6-for-6 from the charity stripe.
Irene Perez chipped in eight points while
Alexus Jones and
Madeline Schroepfer each tallied six. Jones dished out four assists while Schroepfer pulled down a career-high 12 rebounds in the game.
SNU's defense was smothering right from the opening tip, as they held Arkansas-Monticello to just 21 percent shooting and forcing four turnovers. The Storm made just 4-of-14 shots (28 percent) on the offensive side, but managed to take a 12-8 lead after the opening period.
The offense arrived in the second quarter however, as SNU jumped out to a 10-4 run to push their lead to 22-12, courtesy of a couple of three-pointers from Perez. The Blossoms battled after falling behind by double-digits, as they forced six Storm turnovers. But SNU shot 57 percent in the period as they took a 26-16 lead into the break.
Southern Nazarene's strong defensive effort carried into the second half as they held Arkansas-Monticello to just 23 percent shooting while forcing four turnovers. They bumped their lead up to 40-20, before UAM capped off the quarter on a 12-2 run to cut it to 42-32 heading into the final frame.
Much like the first three quarters, defense was on full display for both teams to start the fourth, as there was a combined five points in the first five minutes of play. Both teams struggled to get their offenses going. The Blossoms cut the lead to eight with 3:45 to play, before Berry knocked down a triple to make it 46-35 with 3:22 to play.
After that, the Storm were able to slow things down and force Arkansas-Monticello into fouling and SNU knocked down a couple of free throws to ice it from there.
Southern Nazarene will look to make it four wins in a row on Saturday afternoon, as they play host to Southern Arkansas at 1 p.m. inside Sawyer.
