BETHANY, Okla. — After a three-game road stretch, SNU was finally welcomed back to the Sawyer Center in the best way possible, displaying a dominating 77-52 win over East Central, achieving the East Central sweep as they improved to 2-0 over the Tigers this season.
The Storm (12-4, 9-1 GAC) dominated across the boards, out-rebounding East Central 42 to 26 while scoring 22 points off of 20 ECU turnovers. The Tigers (5-9, 2-7 GAC) struggled to get anything going on the offensive side, shooting just 27% from the field on the afternoon.
SNU put on a strong opening quarter, committing only three turnovers and shooting well over 50% from the field which helped build a 20-9 lead. SNU's defense caused issues for the Tigers to start the contest as they only hit two of their 10 field goal attempts and committed a total of 11 fouls.
Offense stagnated to start quarter number two as East Central went 0-8 from the field six minutes in while SNU only went 3-9 in those six minutes. Two threes from Georgia Adams and Payton Jones gave SNU the large lead of 31-12 with just three minutes remaining in the half.
SNU continued to tack on the points in the second while the Tigers scored just one field goal the entire quarter, leaving SNU to work with the 40-18 advantage heading into halftime.
East Central still struggled to wake up on the offensive end, scoring just four field goals the entire third quarter. SNU continued to capitalize off of their defensive efforts, packing on more buckets to extend their lead to 61-34 at the end of the third.
The whistles sounded a bit more in the fourth quarter, causing some foul troubles for both teams. SNU's scoring was quieter in the final quarter, scoring just 16 in the last 10 minutes. East Central was able to outscore them with 18 in the fourth, but that didn't help much overall as SNU's early dominance held them up for the final 77-52 win in Bethany.
Adams led in scoring with 18 points to go along with four boards.
Nefer Leon tallied nine points and three rebounds against the Tigers.
Lexie Reihm had a stellar performance off the bench, scoring eight to go along with five rebounds and two steals.
Cassandra Awatt also had eight points, followed by five boards and five steals.
Jones finished with seven points and three boards.
The win marks Head Coach Trent May's 400th career win and 78th win as Head Coach of the Crimson Storm.
SNU will head into rivalry week come Monday, January 23rd as they head over to Shawnee for a matchup with Oklahoma Baptist at 5:30 p.m.
