BETHANY - It was a landmark weekend for GAC Basketball as two teams entered the Top 25 for the first time in the conference's existence. It led to the first ever nationally ranked GAC match-up inside the Sawyer Center on Saturday afternoon as No. 19 Southern Nazarene welcomed in No. 22 Southern Arkansas.
And in this meeting between two excellent teams, it was all Crimson Storm from the tip.
SNU jumped on SAU early and never let up, using a tremendous defensive effort to earn a dominating 73-54 win over the Muleriders, their 24th straight victory on their home floor, the third most active home winning streak in NCAA Division II.
Facing a tough defensive team in their own right, SNU went 27 of 62 (44%) from the field, including 50% in the first half, to go with 5 of 21 (24%) from deep, and 14 of 19 (74%) from the line. On the other end, SAU shot 20 of 54 (37%) from the field, 4 of 11 (36%) from deep, and 10 of 17 (59%) from the line.
SNU controlled the boards, outrebounding the Muleriders 45-26 and had 12 assists on the afternoon. SNU did turn the ball over 13 times but forced SAU into 11 of their own.
The Crimson Storm were hot right out of the gate as they used tenacious defense and turned that into offense on the other end as
Jhonathan Dunn scored four points while
Noah Starkey and
Quaylon Newton each added a bucket for an early 8-0 advantage.
As SAU tried to settle in, things did not improve much for the Muelriders as Dunn hit a pair of 3-pointers while Newton, along with
Coleman Edwards, added buckets and SNU suddenly had a double digit lead at 18-7.
As the half rolled on, SNU continued to hit shots as
Micah Speight got going with eight points in two minutes to give SNU a commanding lead at 32-18. The lead would creep up as high as 16 in the first half as SNU shot 50% from the field while SAU was at 37%.
A 3-pointer got it down to 13, but Speight had one final trick of his sleeve with four seconds remaining as he took the inbounds and flew down the court and hit a running lay up with contact at the buzzer to keep all the momentum in the SNU camp and give the Crimson Storm a 41-26 lead at the break.
In the second half, SNU got the paint going as Newton and
Noah Starkey scored combined for six of SNU's first eight points to go ahead 49-28. Jumpers from Dunn and more post work from Starkey followed by another 3-pointer from Speight got the Crimson Storm to their largest lead of the game at 59-33 with around 13 minutes to play.
SNU began to cool off from the field, but the defensive effort never quit. The Muleriders never got as close as 17 in the game as SNU controlled the remainder of the game and closed out SAU for the 73-54 win.
It is the fourth straight game SNU has held an opponent under 60 points, facing some prolific offenses in that timeframe.
Dunn finished with 22 points to go with seven boards and three assists while Speight had 15 point, seven rebound, and three steals including three 3-pointers. Starkey finished with a double-double with 12 points, 10 boards, and five blocks while Newton went for 11 points and nine rebounds.
For SAU, their bench was their production as the starting 5 was held to 22 total points. Aaron Lucas led the Muleriders with 15 points while Wesley Nosakhare had 14 points.
SNU send SAU down to second place in the GAC and remains in the top spot in the conference along with Oklahoma Baptist, who got a late overtime win over Arkansas-Monticello.
SNU will get ready for a short two-game road trip before coming home for a massive six game home stretch in February. They return to action on Thursday as they make the Arkadelphia trip beginning with Henderson State at 7:30 p.m.
