SNU sweeps Great American basketball titles
The Southern Nazarene men's basketball team was on the bus, en route to the 2020 NCAA Division II regional tournament in Maryville, Missouri, when Black Thursday struck. The night before, the Rudy Gobert Game hit in Oklahoma City, and less than 24 hours later, virtually every sport shut down.
The Crimson Storm hasn't been back to the NCAAs since. But Southern Nazarene figures to return next week, and its women's team could join them.
SNU's squads swept the Great American Conference titles this season, becoming the first school since 2011 to win both the men's and women's titles.
The Great American Tournament starts Thursday at Fire Lakes Arena in Shawnee. The SNU women play Southern Arkansas at 5:45 p.m. Thursday; the SNU men play Ouachita Baptist at 8 p.m. Thursday.
The semifinals are Saturday, with the championship games Sunday.
The Southern Nazarene women likely need to win the GAC Tournament to make the NCAA Division II national tournament. But Trent May's team is 23-4 overall and has won 13 straight.
Adam Bohac's SNU men seem assured of an NCAA berth. The Crimson Storm is 24-3 overall and has won 14 straight. The SNU men are ranked 13th nationally and are No. 3 in the Central Regional. Eight teams from each region make the D-II tournament.
“It's been awesome,” Bohac said. “Had a great group. One of those kind of runs where it's all kind of fell together.”
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SNU lost in the Great American Tournament finals a year ago, keeping the Storm from the NCAAs.
“The guys just kind of have an unfinished- business-type mindset,” Bohac said.
On top of that experience, SNU added freshman Javon Jackson, from Houston, who is averaging 15.3 points a game.
Other top SNU scorers are 6-foot-5 sophomore Tyler McGhie (17.3) from Denton, Texas; 6-foot-9 junior Nick Davis (12.5) from Arlington, Texas; and 6-3 graduate student Adokiye Iyaye (10.5) from Putnam North. Bohac also has graduate students Manny Dixon from Trenton, New Jersey, and Mo Wilson, from Northwest Classen, both part of that 2020 season that ended on a bus.
“Losing in the conference championship game was disappointing,” Bohac said. “We had some wind-in-our-sails motivations this year.”
The Southern Nazarene women also finished 21-1 in the GAC.
The female Crimson Storm is led by 5-foot-10 junior Georgia Adams (14.9 points per game); 5-foot-8 senior Cassandra Awatt (13.5); 6-foot-2 junior Hannah Giddey (11.6), who transferred from Oral Roberts and is the sister of Thunder star Josh Giddey; and 5-foot-9 senior Emily Monaghan (9.9). Awatt is from Lubbock, Texas; the others are Australian.
This is the SNU women's first GAC regular-season title, though the Storm won the 2021 conference tournament.