SHAWNEE, Okla.—For the third time, Southern Nazarene is on their way to the Great American Conference championship game following a 77-74 upset victory over the No. 1 seeded Savage Storm of Southeastern Oklahoma State. The Crimson Storm join Arkansas-Monticello and Arkansas Tech as the only GAC schools to reach the championship game three separate times.
As they always do, Southern Nazarene (21-9) and Southeastern Oklahoma State (24-6) played an extremely physical and hardfought contest. The teams fought tooth and nail throughout the first half, resulting in a one point halftime lead for the Savage Storm.
It was all Crimson Storm early in the second half, though. Southern Nazarene busted out a 16-0 run to begin the second half and built a 47-32 lead. Adokiye Iyaye collected 10 of Southern Nazarene's points during the run. He finished the game with 23 points, 16 of which came in the second half.
SNU eventually built the lead by as many as 17 points and cruised through much of the second half. Southeastern began chipping away over the final couple of minutes and knocked down some deep threes, but it would be too little too late as SNU's lead was never really in danger.
Coming into the game, Southeastern was riding an 8 game winning streak that propelled them to a GAC regular season championship. They were able to ride that on the strength of great offense and by taking care of the ball. Southeastern came into the game first in the GAC in fewest turnovers per game, but SNU forced them into 11 turnovers, converting those into 13 points.
Along with Iyaye's 24 points, three other Storm players reached double-figures. Nick Davis poured in 14 points and hauled in 9 rebounds. It is Davis' fourth straight game in double-figures, matching his longest streak of the season.
Xavier Bryant also notched double-figures for the second straight game, scoring 13 just as he did in Friday's win. Manny Dixon also scored 10 in the game.
For the Crimson Storm, it is their first ever win over a higher seed in the GAC tournament and the fourth time in the tournament this year that the lower seed won. Tomorrow, the Storm need to reverse that trend, though, as they meet the seventh seeded Bulldogs of Southwestern Oklahoma State. SWOSU is on a Cinderella run, having knocked off No. 2 seed Oklahoma Baptist on Thursday before knocking off sixth seeded Southern Arkansas on Saturday.
Southern Nazarene and Southwestern Oklahoma State split the regular season series as SWOSU defeated a short-handed SNU squad in December before the Crimson Storm ran the Bulldogs off the floor 82-63 in the regular season. The Crimson Storm are looking to do that again and earn their third GAC Tournament Championship and another trip to the NCAA Central Region Tournament. Tipoff is set for 1:00 p.m. inside the Firelake Arena in Shawnee.
