BETHANY, Okla. – Southern Nazarene increased a six-point halftime advantage to 17 points following the intermission, but Southern Arkansas battled throughout the second half but came up short down the stretch as the Crimson Storm topped the Muleriders 90-81 in the Great American Conference opener for both schools on Thursday night inside the Sawyer Center.

Records

Southern Nazarene (2-0, 1-0 GAC)

Southern Arkansas (1-2, 0-1 GAC)

HOW IT HAPPENED – 1st HALF

Keeton Tennison found the bottom of the net for the game's first points on three-point try less than 45 seconds into the contest.

Southern Nazarene would answer with jumper on the next trip down the court, before SAU's Draylan Perkins scored on a layup to push the early lead to three at the 17:18 mark of the opening half.

Again the Storm answered on its ensuing trip to the other end; this time with a three-pointer from Jhonathan Dunn that tied the game at 5, three minutes in.

At the 15:46 mark of the first half, Tennison assisted Braydon Powell for an inside bucket and for the third-straight time Southern Nazarene answered on the other end as a layup from Zach Johnson tied the game at 7 and sparked a small SNU run that created a six-point advantage, 13-7, just under seven and half minutes into the ballgame.

Over the next nine-plus minutes, Southern Arkansas would weather the Crimson Storm on the offensive end as they wouldn't allow the home team to build a lead greater than nine points with SNU holding a 32-23 lead at the 3:33 mark courtesy of a trio of free throws from Southern Nazarene's Micah Speight.

The following trip down the proved beneficial for the Muleriders as Quinton Gillette sank a three on a pass from CJ Elkins, moments before the former assisted Tennison for another trifecta that quickly sunk the SNU lead to three, 32-29, with less than 2:30 to play.

Southern Nazarene, behind its home crowd, would push its lead back to eight, before SAU's Aaron Lucas managed to sink three staggered free throws down the stretch in helping the Muleriders cut the deficit to six, 39-33, at the intermission.

HOW IT HAPPENED – 2nd HALF

The Crimson Storm took control of the game coming out of the halftime break as their lead blossomed to 15 after an 11-0 run pushed their advantage to 50-33 at the 17:17 mark of the final half.

Elkins ended the almost three-minute scoring drought for Southern Arkansas with a pair of free throws after being designated the shooter following a technical foul by SNU on a fast break dunk celebration. That tech coupled with Elkins' free throws ended the SNU run and Wesley Nosakhare followed with an inside bucket to cut the deficit to 13, 50-37.

The next SAU possession brought the SNU lead down to ten as Lukas Hart bottomed his third trifecta of the evening as part of a 7-0 Mulerider run after the Southern Nazarene technical.

SNU's Noah Starkey scored inside to put the Storm lead back to a dozen at 52-40 and the SAU deficit would reach 13 at the 12:44 mark of the second half.

Trailing by 13 points and needing a spark on the road, the Muleriders kept grinding it out as Gillette scored on a jumper, before Perkins followed with a pair of free throws as SAU cut the SNU advantage to single digits, 57-48, at the 11:10 mark.

With the deficit now nine, Southern Arkansas kept at it as Hart sank a pair of free throws, but Starkey answered with a pair of his own to keep the SNU lead at nine.

The ensuing SAU possession saw Perkins pull up from practically downtown Oklahoma City and drain a three-pointer as the Muleriders pulled within two possessions at the 10:37 mark, 59-53.

The run wouldn't stop for Southern Arkansas as Elkins was true on a pair of free throws to pull SAU to a possession deficit, 59-55.

Moments later, Charlie Thomas ignited the SAU bench with an old-fashioned three-point play that kept the deficit at four, 65-61.

A dunk from Starkey and a three-pointer moments later by Dunn put SNU up seven and bookend what resembled the middle rounds of a heavyweight bout as the Storm would find a way to build their lead back to a dozen at the 5:43 mark.

As much as it was Southern Nazarene not giving up the fight in limiting the Mulerider attack in the first 15 minutes, the final five minutes of action proved that Southern Arkansas wouldn't stop swinging either.

The Muleriders, trailing by a dozen, would whittle its deficit all the way back down to five with just over two minutes to play as Elkins made a pair of free throws pulling SAU to within 82-77.

But it would turn out to be the Crimson Storm's night as they cashed in on multiple free throws down the stretch to claim an important 90-81 league victory.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

Elkins led the offense with 20 points including an 84.6% (11-of-13) clip from the free throw line. He added two assists and picked up a pair of steals in a team-high 35 minutes.

Hart followed with 16 points highlighted by 3-of-6 shooting from deep, while Tennison added 10 courtesy of three three-pointers.

Six Muleriders grabbed three of more boards led by Tennison's five, while Perkins paced four Muleriders with two or more assists as he dished out a team-high three.

The Muleriders were almost identical in shooting from the first half (11-of-33 | 33.3%) to the second half (11-of-32 | 34.4%), but connected on 17 more free throws in the final twenty minutes to help pound away at the Southern Nazarene lead.

UP NEXT

Southern Arkansas heads east into Shawnee for a 1 p.m. tip-off on Saturday against Oklahoma Baptist inside the Noble Complex. The Muleriders will look to improve to 5-0 all-time against the Bison. Live coverage links available at http://www.muleriderathletics.com.