MAGNOLIA,Ark. — Southern Nazarene Men's Basketball faced another tough road loss on Saturday, dropping their contest with Arkansas Monticello, 64-52. 

It was another tale of two halves as the Storm (6-9,3-7 GAC) were up by three points at halftime, shooting 52% from the field. That momentum was later snuffed out by the Weevils (7-8,5-5 GAC) in the second half as they pieced together numerous small scoring runs that eventually put Southern Nazarene away at the final buzzer. Arkansas-Monticello used 19 points off 12 SNU turnovers as well 12 second chance points to finish the job on their home floor. 

Kent Girard gave SNU some good footing at the start of the contest, knocking down a long ball in the Storm's first possession. Benno Zecic carried on that fire in next few minutes with 10 more points of his own, pushing SNU to a 15-8 lead seven minutes into the contest. 
After a few Cam Slaymaker free throws, the game experienced a scoring cold spell, with SNU's Tyrell Coleman dropping in the only points scored in those two minutes. The Weevils were able to cut SNU's lead down 20-17 with eight minutes left in the first half, but the Storm had an answer for every bucket by UAM. Jaxon Edelmayer's three ball bumped SNU to 27-19 and the teams went back and forth from there. In the remaining few minutes, Southern Nazarene held up their lead, even with the Weevils final back-to-back buckets, and the Storm headed into the break ahead 31-28. 

The theme changed in the next 20 minutes as Arkansas Monticello saw their very first lead of game after a dunk at the 15:00 mark, getting ahead of the Storm at 36-35. That dunk sparked an 11-0 scoring run that dug SNU into a 10-point hole. The Storm fought to cut their deficit down to just four points after a few free throws from Ben Baker-McCann.

The Weevils took control on the offensive end, answering every Storm comeback with more buckets. Cam Slaymaker was able to cut the gap down to just seven with four points of his own, allowing SNU to see some light with the three and half minutes left on the clock. Southern Nazarene was forced to foul with the little time remaining, awarding the Weevils with a few points from the charity stripe to send the Storm with another loss by a final 64-52 score. 

Zecic led with 15 points and three assists. Slaymaker added 14 points. 

Up Next

Southern Nazarene will remain on the road for a weekday rival match with Oklahoma Baptist at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, January 25th.