ALVA, Okla.-. Rangers dropped the conference opener as the Crimson Storm pulled away from Northwestern with a final score of 67-46 Thursday evening. Southern Nazarene improves to 1-0 on the season while the Red-and-Black fall to 2-1 on the season and 0-1 in the Great American Conference play.
Southern Nazarene was led by Manny Dixon and Adokiye Iyaye, as Dixon finished with a game-high 19 points, while Iyaye had 13 points. Xavier Bryant followed them as their third and final double-digit scorer with 11 points.
The Rangers' leading scorer was Deon Barrett with 12 points as the only double-figure scorer for the Rangers, followed by Parrish Hewitt finishing the game with eight points. Bubba Furlong grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds.
The opening minutes of Thursday's matchup was a defensive battle as SNU got out to a 6-4 lead with only four shots made in the opening five minutes of the game, along with six combined turnovers in the opening sequence. Hewitt evened the score at 10 with a three-pointer close to the halfway point in the first half. Southern Nazarene answered with a 6-0 run to gain enough separation in which they would hold onto the lead for the rest of the game. The visitors would use a 15-4 run to open their first double-digit lead of the game at 25-14 from a Dixon three.
In the closing minutes of the half, the Crimson Storm would build their largest lead of the opening period at 31-16. Barrett would trade free throws in the closing seconds with Mo Wilson to keep the deficit at 15 at the break with a score of 32-17. Arturro Bingham led the Rangers with six first-half points after a heavily defensive battle, with the Rangers shooting 18 percent from the field.
In the opening minutes of the second half, teams would trade basket after basket before the Crimson Storm would stretch their lead to 20 for the first time in this game with a 42-21 score, just before the first media timeout in the second half.
The lead grew to 25 points at 49-24 before the Rangers cut into the deficit with a 10-3 run to bring the margin to 19 points at 52-34. The Crimson Storm responded with a 13-3 run to open their largest lead of the game at 65-38 after an Iyaye layup with 4:20 to play. After Jack Peck went to the foul line and hit one of two foul shots to give him five points in the game, this would close off the scoring with the final score 67-46 in favor of the Crimson storm.
The Rangers look to bounce back as they take on Oklahoma Baptist Saturday afternoon after the Lady Rangers conclude their conference opener, starting at 2 pm Saturday.
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