BETHANY, Okla. — Southern Nazarene stepped on to Bobby Martin court for the last time in 2023 on Thursday night, hosting the No. 11 nationally ranked Dallas Baptist Patriots for an afternoon non-conference matchup. 

The Storm (4-4,1-2 GAC) faced a tall task on Thursday, facing the 11th ranked Patriots (8-1,3-1 Lone Star) out of the Lone Star conference, a team that has lost just one game so far this season. SNU hung on to the Patriots in the first half, knocking down four threes and shooting 56 percent from the field to force a tie heading into halftime. 

Unfortunately for the Storm, 13 second-half turnovers and 12 second-chance points from DBU pushed them far enough back until there was not enough time to turn the momentum around, allowing DBU to scrape up the 14-point victory. 

The No.11 ranking next to Dallas Baptist's name did not phase the Storm in the first half as the SNU matched the Patriots in scoring with 36 at the break. 

After the teams worked up to an 8-8 tie to start the first, Dallas Baptist caught a quick burst and put up a 6-0 run to pull away from the Storm at 14-8 eight minutes into the contest. 

A quick five points by Benno Zecic put the Storm right back within a single point and the two squads continued to trade buckets from there. The Patriots attacked the Storm with a few layups and shots inside the paint, working back up to a four-point lead, but Ben Baker-McCann took over the scoring with a long ball, giving the Storm the one point trail once again. 

The lead continued to teeter between the teams up until Zecic and Baker-McCann silenced the Patriots with back-to-back buckets, snatching the four-point lead at 34-30 with three minutes remaining in the first half. DBU was quick to overcome the four-point deficit  and the game was gridlocked twice in the final two minutes with Cam Slaymaker's two free throw makes ending the half at 36-36. 

SNU battled through nine ties and six lead changes that half, including an aggressive rebounding presence from the Patriots who out-rebounded the Storm by seven rebounds in the first half. 

Southern Nazarene struggled to find an offensive groove to start the second half, allowing the Patriots to explode for an 8-0 run that lasted four minutes. Keeshawn Mason's two free throw swishes finally ended the scoring drought for SNU with just under 11 minutes remaining in the ballgame. Mason's free throws put the Storm at 45-51, but Dallas Baptist worked fast to stretch their lead even further, working with an 11-point advantage with 9:40 reading on the clock. 

The Storm did a great job answering every bucket the Patriots put in, eventually bringing the scoring gap down to just eight points after a Jonas Visser free throw. DBU dropped in back-to-back layups and two free throws to push their lead back up to 13 with four minutes left in the game. After an SNU missed-layup, DBU dropped in another bucket inside, forcing SNU to take a timeout with a little over three minutes to play.

Southern Nazarene struggled to contain the hot offense from Dallas Baptist as the Patriots used every opening lane for more scoring opportunities, eventually growing their lead to 17 with two minutes left in the ballgame. Baker-McCann and Slaymaker each knocked down a free throw and Jonas Visser floated in a bucket to make it a 14-point game, but the Patriots melted the clock in the last possession of the contest, claiming the 70-56 victory over the Storm. 

Zecic, Baker-McCann, Slaymaker, and Visser were the four SNU members in double-digit scoring. 

Up Next

Southern Nazarene will have one more matchup before the holiday break, heading over to Weatherford, OK to take on the Bulldogs of Southwestern Oklahoma State on Saturday, December 16th at 3:00 p.m.