MAGNOLIA, Ark.—For the fourth time in six years, Southern Nazarene finds themselves on top of the Great American Conference, as their 66-57 win over Southern Arkansas on Thursday night earned the Crimson Storm the outright GAC Regular Season Championship.
Southern Nazarene (22-3 18-1 GAC) has run through the conference all season as their only loss came in the final seconds at Arkansas Tech earlier this year. The Storm hold a five-game lead over second-place in the GAC. No men's team has ever finished the regular season at least five games ahead of second place in the conference. SNU won the conference by four games during the 2017-18 season.
Southern Arkansas (17-8, 13-6 GAC) held a one point lead early in the second half after starting the second half on an 8-2 run, but the nation's top defense clamped down and propelled the Crimson Storm on a 23-5 run that gave SNU their largest lead at 57-40. The Muleriders fought back to within seven points with just over one minute remaining, but ran out of time as Southern Nazarene came away with the nine point win.
Javon Jackson and Tyler McGhie put on another show. The duo combined for 40 points (21 from Jackson and 19 from McGhie) and 7 made threes. Jackson also dished out 5 assists, while McGhie hauled in 6 rebounds.
The Storm have now won 12 straight games, including 20 of their last 21. In all 21 of those games, SNU has allowed fewer than 70 points, including 13 games allowing less than 60 points.
With three games still to play this season, Southern Nazarene has clinched the No. 1 seed in the Great American Conference Men's Basketball Tournament. The tournament is set for March 2-5 at the Firelake Arena in Shawnee, Oklahoma. As the No. 1 seed, SNU will play at 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 2nd. If the Storm win on that Thursday, they will have a day off on Friday before Saturday's semifinal action.
The Crimson Storm rank No. 14 in the NABC Coaches Poll and were listed as one of the teams "Under Consideration" in the first NCAA DII Central Region rankings. The first top-10 regional rankings will be released next Tuesday.
Southern Nazarene will look to continue to climb the national polls, as well as impress the regional voters, during the final three-game stretch of the season. SNU has one game left in Arkansas on Saturday at Arkansas-Monticello, before returning home for their final home game against Northwestern Oklahoma State. SNU closes the regular season at Southwestern Oklahoma State on February 25.
The game at Monticello is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. this Saturday.
