BETHANY, OKLAHOMA - Northwestern played Southern Nazarene in their final road game of the 2023 season as the Crimson Storm used a 14-0 run to take a 14 point lead in which they would never lose. The win completes the season series win over the Rangers with the 92-66 victory over the Rangers.
Malik Parsons led the Rangers with 27 points on Thursday after going 11-21 from the field.
Southern Nazarene came out on fire to start the game after Larry White got the scoring started with a layup, the Crimson Storm answered back with 14 straight points to open a double digit lead at 14-2 over the Rangers. This was started by three straight three's hit by Iyaye to open the lead. Free ended the Crimson Storm run with two foul shots with 15:00 minutes left in the half.
The Crimson Storm though kept the pressure on following a made three pointer extending their lead to 15 at 19-4 over the Rangers. Parsons was a part of the next seven points as he hit back to back layups before assisting on a Free three to bring the Rangers back within nine at 20-11. Dixon answered back with a driving layup off a couple passes pushing the Rangers deficit back to 11.
Jareon Mayo hit his first shot of the game to bring the Rangers back within the nine points. Southern Nazarene continued to answer back though stretching their lead to double digits again at 28-18. They got it back to 15 at 33-18 with 5:59 left to play in the first half. Southern Nazarene followed by going on a 13-0 run as Mcghie knocked down a couple of three pointers to take a 50-22 lead over the Rangers. Marquise Milton ended their run with a driving layup. Davis hit a layup and went up 37-20. Southern Nazarene took a 52-24 lead over the Rangers into halftime.
With Northwestern trailing Parsons got the scoring started in the second half trying to get the Rangers back into the game. Iyaye put their lead back to 26 before Chance Love hit back to back shots. Parsons followed five straight points to cut the deficit to 17 with 14:30 left to play in the game. The run was stopped following a foul and a couple of technicals as Tyler McGhie knocked down five foul shots to push the lead back to over 20 points for the Crimson Storm.
Southern Nazarene led 76-51 out of the under eight media timeout. Kobe McGowan hit a three pointer to cut the deficit to 23 points before Hancik and Parsons combined to help cut the deficit back down to 18 points at 79-61 with three minutes to play.
Southern Nazarene closed their win out on a 13-5 run to win 92-66 final score over the Rangers. Northwestern will close out the regular season with a home game against Southeastern Oklahoma State Saturday afternoon with tip-off set for 3:00 PM.
