BETHANY, Okla. - Southern Nazarene used a strong second half performance to hold off Rogers State, 67-55, at the Sawyer Center in Bethany on Saturday night.
Junior John West and Senior A.J. Thomas combined for 25 of the Crimson Storm's 37 second half points to lead SNU to victory. West led all scorers with 20 points and 10 rebounds as he converted 4-of-5 from long distance.
The teams battled back and forth throughout the opening stanza with the Hillcats holding a two-point advantage at the break with a put-back by Brandon Mims in the final seconds of the half.
The first 15 minutes of the second half was much of the same. The Crimson Storm gained a five point lead but the Cats continued to battle answering each of SNU buckets. John Boyd converted two free throws at the five minute mark to cut SNU's lead to five points. However, West answered with a trey and Jeremy Lightfoot followed with a layup to push the Storm's lead to 10 points with less than four minutes to play. Neither team converted a bucket over the next two minutes with the Cats missing four buckets and committing a turnover which forced RSU to foul. SNU put the game away with free throws. The Crimson Storm out-scored the Hillcats 9-4 in the final five minutes of the game.
RSU shot a measly 10 percent from behind the arc, 36 percent from the floor and 68 percent from the charity stripe. Larry Cox led RSU in scoring with 13 points while chipping in a team-high eight boards. John Boyd and Deveric Taylor each chipped in 11 points to round out the double-digit scoring. The Storm edged the Cats on the boards 35-33.
Rogers State (11-8, 7-5) falls into a tie for fifth place with Oklahoma Christian in the Sooner Athletic Conference standings with the loss to SNU. The Hillcats will welcome the Eagles to the Claremore Expo on Thursday night with a tip-time of 8 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on RSU Radio 91.3FM and on RSU Public Television. The first 1,000 fans in attendance at the Claremore Expo will receive a free collectable bobblehead courtesy of RSU athletics.
