Box Score (html)
BETHANY, Okla. – Trent Washington tied a season-high with 20 points but he was the only Bulldog to reach double figures in scoring as SWOSU fell to Southern Nazarene 71-57 on Thursday night at the Sawyer Center. The win gives the Crimson Storm a season sweep of the Bulldogs and hands SWOSU their second consecutive road defeat.
After the Bulldogs took an early lead, SNU responded and led most of the first half despite SWOSU going on top 21-20 with an
Ayo Ojo dunk with 9:40 to play. The Crimson Storm, however, responded with a 14-0 run that led to them outscoring the Bulldogs 19-7 over the rest of the half en route to a 39-27 halftime lead.
SWOSU carried over some late first-half momentum and used a 12-0 run spanning both halves to get back within four after five straight points from
Trent Washington made 39-35 with 16:48 to play. That momentum would be short lived as SNU came back with a 14-7 stretch that pushed the lead back into double digits at 53-42 with just over 10 minutes remaining.
The Crimson Storm remained in control down the stretch, not letting their lead get lower than nine in the final quarter of the game and holding the Bulldogs off with free throws in the final two minutes. For the game, SNU hit 48.1% (25-of-52) of their field goal attempts, compared to 35.2% (19-of-54) for SWOSU, who also finished just 6-of-21 from three-point range.
"I'm pleased with our energy and effort tonight, our guys played hard and we had good game management," SWOSU Head Coach
Bob Battisti said. "Our problem is from an offensive standpoint. Southern Nazarene ran good offense and hit their looks, but we were unable to come up with answers from the offensive end."
Washington tied his season-high with 20 points but the second-leading scorers for SWOSU were
Kenyan Borders and
Martell Collins with nine points apiece. Collins fell just one point shy of another double-double after grabbing a game-high 14 rebounds, upping his league-leading season average to 9.4 per game.
The loss is the second straight for the Bulldogs and drops SWOSU to 10-8 on the year and 4-7 in Great American Conference play with nine games remaining on the league schedule. The Dawgs return to action on Saturday afternoon, hosting East Central at 3:00 pm in the Pioneer Cellular Event Center.
