BETHANY ‑ On Monday night the Southern Nazarene Men's Basketball team was back in the Sawyer Center to take on rival Oklahoma Baptist. After a strong first half and going cold in the second, OBU escaped Bethany with a 60-57 victory over SNU.
 
SNU played fantastic defensively and was able to limit the Bison (9-3, 9-2 GAC) offense for most of the game, to just 36 percent shooting. The Crimson Storm (6-6, 6-6 GAC) defense also forced 13 turnovers. The Storm's final seven minutes on offense was the difference maker as they held a 14-point lead and the Bison got red-hot to eventually take the lead. Adokiye Iyaye led all scorers with 25 points, as the junior guard also collected eight rebounds. Manny Dixon tallied 11 points, two rebounds, and two steals, while Karlyn Kenner chipped in with 11 points, two rebounds, and two steals. 
 
SNU started off great defensively as they held the Bison scoreless in the first three minutes of the game. The Crimson Storm wouldn't let the Bison get any open shots in the beginning of the first half as OBU shot just 1-for-11 in the first eight minutes of the game. This effort propelled the Crimson Storm to a 12-3 lead at this point in the game. Later, SNU led the Bison 20-10 with seven minutes left to go in the first half of play and with five minutes left in the first half, Dixon tossed up an alley-oop dunk to Adokiye Iyaye, which sent Sawyer into a frenzy. Iyaye capped off an amazing first half as he made a 3-pointer as time expired that extended SNU's lead to 33-19 heading to halftime.
 
Early in the second half, the Bison fought back as they shortened SNU's lead to just six points. The score was 39-33 in favor of the Crimson Storm with 15 minutes left to play in the game. The Crimson Storm went on an 8-0 run later in the half and that run allowed them to take their biggest lead of the game at 52-38 with 8 minutes left to play. Just as things were looking swell for Southern Nazarene, the Bison offense exploded. SNU couldn't buy a bucket as OBU went on a 17-0 run to take the lead at 55-52. It was a nail-biter finish as the Bison escaped Sawyer with their eighth straight win.

Southern Nazarene finished the game shooting 36 percent from the floor, including 21 percent in the second half. They went 12-for-21 (57%) from the free-throw line and knocked down 9-of-26 (34.6%) from 3-point territory.
 
The Crimson Storm will be back on Bobby Martin Court this Thursday evening as they play host to Southwestern Oklahoma State (7-5, 7-5 GAC). Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.