Box Score

BETHANY, Okla. (Dec. 1, 2007) - No. 5 Southern Nazarene escaped with a 74-72 win over Oklahoma Christian Saturday night.

With SNU up 72-70, the Lady Eagles had a chance to tie the game in the closing seconds, but Brittni Brown blocked Lindsey Gipson's pullup jumper in the lane.

Brown converted two free throws on the other end to clinch the win for the Storm, which improved to 2-0 in the Sooner Athletic Conference and 7-1 overall. OC fell to 1-1 and 3-3 entering Tuesday's game at Northwestern Oklahoma State.

"It's definitely a tough loss to take because we fought back after being down and had a chance to tie the game," OC head coach Stephanie Findley said. "But those things happen and we'll just have to learn from it."

Danielle Cox led the Lady Eagles with a career-high 22 points (17 in the second half). Haley Myers also notched a career high with 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting from three-point range.

Except for a brief OC edge at 35-34, SNU led virtually the entire second half and looked like it would pull away on a couple of occasions. But the Lady Eagles battled back time and time again.

The Crimson Storm saw a 48-38 lead cut to 53-49 before consecutive three-point plays by LaShelle Chandler and Tejana Elmore pushed the lead back to 10 points at 59-49 with 6:56 left.

But the Lady Eagles clawed back, twice cutting the deficit to four points on Cox baskets, then pulling within 67-66 when Myers nailed a three-pointer with 1:49 left.

Chandler answered with a trey on SNU's next possession, but Cox trimmed the lead to 70-68 with an inside basket. The teams traded free throws by Elmore and OC's Kailan DeCamp in the final minute to set up the tight finish.

Elmore scored a game-high 27 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. Lana Keith totaled 13 points and Chandler scored 12.