SHAWNEE, Okla.—The 2022 Great American Conference Basketball tournament begins tomorrow as the Southern Nazarene Men's Basketball team enters as the No. 4 seed.
The Crimson Storm are no strangers to the GAC Tournament, having won the tournament championship twice in 2018 and 2019. SNU's hopes for a three-peat were dashed in the GAC semi-finals in 2020.
The 2021-22 team comes into the tournament with plenty of confidence as the No. 4 seed after closing the season winning 14 of their final 18 GAC games. The team dealt with an abundance of injuries early in the season and found themselves at the bottom of the conference at 0-4. They were never fazed, though, rattling off a 10 game winning streak in January to climb back to the top-4 of the GAC standings. The Storm moved as high as third in the standings, but close losses to Oklahoma Baptist, Southern Arkansas, and Northwestern Oklahoma State sealed their fate as the No. 4 seed.
For the second straight year, Southern Nazarene meets Henderson State in the first round of the tournament. Last season, the Reddies got the best of the Storm by overcoming a 9 point deficit with six and a half minutes to play as they took a 60-57 win over SNU. So far this season, Southern Nazarene has gotten their revenge by winning back-to-back games over HSU in late January as a part of their ten game winning streak.
Offensively, the Storm are led by freshman sensation Tyler McGhie. Despite missing much of the first half of the season with an injury, McGhie returned to the lineup to light up the scoreboard. He led the team 17.4 points per game and was first in the Great American Conference with 3.4 threes made per game.
Last season's GAC Newcomer of the Year, Adokiye Iyaye was the other Storm player to average double-figures, putting up 14 points per game. Iyaye and McGhie combined for 12 three point makes in SNU's regular season finale win over Southwestern Oklahoma State.
Another Crimson Storm that can be found among the league-leaders is Nick Davis, who led the conference in field goal percentage at 71.4%, eight percentage points higher than second place. He also hauled in a team-high 5 rebounds per game and blocked one shot per game.
With a win, Southern Nazarene would move on to the semi-finals on Saturday at noon to take on the winner of the 1-8 matchup between Southeastern Oklahoma State and East Central.
The GAC Championship is set for Sunday at 1:00 p.m.
You can follow all the action through the
GAC Tournament Page.
