EDMOND, Okla.—The road continues to be no problem for Southern Nazarene as they picked up their third straight road win, and fourth straight win overall, as they dominated Oklahoma Christian from start to finish, 77-61.
For the second straight game, freshman Javon Jackson earned the start and did not disappoint. After putting up 22 first half points in SNU's win at Northwestern Oklahoma State, Jackson followed that up with 14 first half points at Oklahoma Christian. He helped lead SNU to a huge 43-24 halftime advantage that saw the Crimson Storm shoot 60.7% in that opening half.
The Crimson Storm (6-2, 3-0 GAC) never trailed in the game and were only tied 2-2. They quickly jumped out to a 13-2 lead following an 11-0 run and never relinquished the lead. Midway through the first half, Oklahoma Christian (4-6, 0-4 LSC) put together their own 11-1 run that trimmed a 17 point deficit to just 7 points, but SNU responded with another 8-0 burst and regrew their advantage to 21 points before taking a 43-24 lead into the halftime break.
The Eagles started the second half hot and quickly cut the score to 51-43 after knocking down four shots from deep in the first five minutes of the half. That sharp-shooting from the outside did not last for OC as they did not hit another three-pointer for the remainder of the game.
The Crimson Storm used great work from the charity stripe to close out the game in the second half. As a team, they knocked down 14-of-16 shots at the line in the second half. On the other side, Oklahoma Christian made just 5 of their 13 attempts at the line.
Despite not shooting as many shots from the outside as they typically do, SNU still shot well from beyond the arc, knocking down 5 of their 12 attempts. For the season, the Crimson Storm are shooting 42.7 from deep, which ranks sixth in all of DII.
After Jackson's big first half, it was Tyler McGhie and Nick Davis who took over the scoring in the second half. McGhie scored 11 of his team-leading 18 points in the second half, while Davis poured in 9 of his 15 points in the second half. Jackson finished the game with 16 points. They all also hauled in 6 rebounds.
The trio of Xavier Bryant, Mo Wilson II, and Eain Mowat each chipped in with 8 points of their own.
Thursday's game was the first in a stretch of three games in five days for the Crimson Storm. They will turn around and host Southwestern Oklahoma State in Great American Conference play on Saturday before taking on William Jewell at home on Monday to close the semester. Tipoff with Southwestern Oklahoma State is set for 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, following the women's game, inside the Sawyer Center.
