BETHANY, Okla.—Despite missing three of their top six scorers, Southern Nazarene came away with a 68-55 win over Harding University on Monday night inside the Sawyer Center. It is SNU's tenth consecutive win over Harding.
The Crimson Storm (15-6, 10-5 GAC) were coming off a heartbreaking overtime defeat at the hands of Southeastern Oklahoma State on Saturday, a loss that ended SNU's ten game winning streak, but a shorthanded squad got the team back in the win column over a feisty Harding (4-16, 2-12 GAC) team.
Harding grabbed the first bucket of the game, but that would be their only lead all night. Southern Nazarene followed with a 16-3 run and never relinquished the lead. The Bisons cut the Storm lead to four on a couple of occasions in the second half but SNU always had an answer.
Both teams struggled from the floor for the majority of the game. The Storm slightly outshot the Bisons 41.8% (23-of-55) to 40.4% (19-of-47). The difference of the game, though, was SNU's relentless attack of the basket. The Storm got to the line 27 times, knocking down 19 of those attempts. They nearly doubled Harding up in attempts as Harding would shoot 12-of-14 from the stripe.
The game started to tighten up late as Harding trimmed SNU's advantage to just 61-55 with a minute to play. Harding then came close to forcing a Crimson Storm turnover on the inbounds, but after a couple of timeouts, SNU finally broke the trap and drew a foul. Adokiye Iyaye knocked down both free throws. The Storm then forced back-to-back turnovers, leading to easy buckets at the rim, and icing the game at 68-55.
Adokiye Iyaye put on a show in the second half. Coming out the halftime break Iyaye was already sitting at a solid 10 points, but he erupted for 19 more in the second half to finish with a season-high 29 points. He was the leading aggressor on the offensive end, getting to the line 13 times, where he knocked down 10.
Nick Davis tallied his second double-double of the season, pouring in 17 points and hauling in a game-high 11 rebounds.
Freshman point guard Eain Mowat came off the bench to provide a huge spark for the short-handed Storm squad. He scored a season-high 11 points as the first guy off the bench for SNU.
With the win, Southern Nazarene now moves back into a tie of third place with Northwestern Oklahoma State in the Great American Conference standings. The Storm will hope this win kickstarts another winning streak as they make a push for the top of the conference standings. In order to do so, SNU must try to knock off Harding once again as they will play the same opponent in back-to-back games for the second time this season. The two squads will meet in Searcy on Thursday night. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. following the women's game.
