BETHANY - Leading 59-55 going into the under 8 media timeout, No. 19/22 Southern Nazarene was in their second straight battle of the weekend with a team from Arkadelphia. From that point, junior Jhonathan Dunn scored the next 10 points to push the lead to 10 and the Crimson Storm scored 25 points in the final eight minutes to pull away from the Henderson State Reddies and take a 84-72 victory at the Sawyer Center on Saturday afternoon.

With the win, SNU has now won 23 straight inside the Sawyer Center and moves to 12-2 on the season and 5-1 in the GAC, tied for first place.

The Crimson Storm shot 31 of 62 (50%) from the field and 7 of 21 (33%) from deep while going 15 of 20 (75%) at the line. On the other end, Henderson State was 24 of 64 (38%) from the field, 7 of 22 (32%) from deep, and 17 of 19 (90%) at the line. SNU held a slight 36-34 advantage in rebounds and forced 12 turnovers while giving it away 11 times. The Crimson Storm had 25 assists on 31 made shots in the game. SNU scored 40 of its points in the paint and 14 from their bench.

The Crimson Storm got off to a hot start as a dunk from Noah Starkey and a fastbreak layup from Zach Johnson gave the home team a 4-0 lead. Dunn connected on his first 3-pointer one possession later followed by Quaylon Newton's first basket of the season as SNU took a 9-2 lead.

Back-to-back layups from RJ Palmer followed by a three from Micah Speight put SNU on top 16-6 in the first 6:30 of the game. Ashton Charles would connect on a three a few plays later to keep the Crimson Storm in control at 19-10 going into the under 12 timeout. 

Henderson State used the next five minutes to go on a 7-0 run to climb back into it, making it a two point game, but SNU used relentless defense and held the Reddies to 11 of 36 shooting from the field.

Leading 23-21 with 6:51 to play, SNU closed the half on a 12-4 run including baskets from Palmer, Dunn, and Speight to lead 35-25 at the break.

After a Henderson State bucket to open the second half, Speight connected on a 3-pointer to get the lead out to 11, but the Reddies came out firing in the second half, using another 7-0 run to cut hte lead to four at 38-34. It seemed the deficit would be cut closer after a Dunn miss on three, but a diving Newton came away with an incredible offensive board and turned it into a made basket to make it 40-34. 

 SNU got the lead back to eight, but Henderson State continued to chip away before a 3-pointer by Rel Johnson tied the game at 48 a piece with 11:31 to play.

After exchanging buckets, Newton came up big again, getting back-to-back buckets to fall to move SNU back ahead 54-50. The two teams battled back-and-forth, but SNU remained in front 59-55 with 7:46 to play in the game.

From there, Dunn took the game over, knocking down a mid-range jumper followed by a pair of free throws. He then hit back-to-back 3-pointers to put SNU back on top at 69-59. Some free throws scattered and a monster dunk from Noah Starkey gave the Crimson Storm their largest lead of the game at 76-63 with 1:40 to play.

The final few minutes turned into a free throw contest, but the game was decided as SNU closed things out with an 84-72 victory.

Dunn was outstanding, finishing with 27 points on 8 of 16 shooting and four 3-pointers as well as seven boards, five assists, and a steal. Newton added 16 points of 6 of 7 shooting to go with six boards in 19 minutes while Starkey scored 12 points of 5 of 7 shooting to go with seven boards and five blocks.

Palmer scored 11 off the bench to go with four rebounds while Speight had 10 points and a career-high 13 assists to go with five rebounds. With his 13 assists, Speight finished with the second most assists in a game in SNU history, second only to current Athletics Director Bobby Martin, who had 22 against American Christian in 1973.

Johnson led HSU with 15 points off the bench while Chris Parker had 14. Joshua Jones scored 11 while Raekwon Rogers had 12 and six boards off the bench. 

The Crimson Storm will prepare for a four game road trip beginning on Thursday as they head to Russellville, Ark. to take on Arkansas Tech beginning at 7:30 p.m.