MAGNOLIA, Ark. – Trailing 52-47 with 3:50 remaining in the game, Southern Arkansas closed out Saturday afternoon's Great American Conference affair with Southern Nazarene on a 10-2 run which coupled with a tenacious defensive effort throughout gave the Muleriders a 57-54 win over the Crimson Storm; SAU's fourth-consecutive victory and first over their Sooner State counterpart since 2016 which snaps a six-game losing streak. The win pushes the Muleriders back to .500 overall at 9-9 and evens the team's conference record at 6-6.
 
Southern Arkansas received double-double efforts from sophomore combo Jalen Brooks (17 points, 13 rebounds, three blocks, and two steals), his second in as many games, and junior forward Devante Brooks (15 points, 10 rebounds) as the brothers combined for 11-of-22 shooting in a collective 77 minutes of action. Junior guard Aaron Lucas dropped 16 points and dished out a game-high five assists.
 
The contest featured ten lead changes and five tied scores with the last Mulerider lead coming on an impressive drive to the bucket by Lucas which followed a block by J. Brooks on the defensive end of the floor. The basket put Southern Arkansas up 53-52 with 56 seconds remaining and bookended a trio of critical offensive possessions by the Muleriders in the 2:54 seconds that followed the jumper by SNU's Jhonathan Dunn which gave the Crimson Storm the aforementioned five-point lead.
 
With 2:13 to play, J. Brooks made a pair of free throws and at the 1:22 mark, a Mulerider possession which followed two unsuccessful efforts by the Crimson Storm that could have padded the visitor's lead, junior guard Gabe Gilliam pulled up just inside the three-point line at the top of the key for his only points of the night on an important basket that pulled SAU to within 52-51.
 
Following his make that gave SAU the lead, Lucas nailed a pair of free throws to cushion the Mulerider advantage at three points with 13 seconds left, J. Brooks bottomed two attempts before Dunn's final basket late cut the lead back down to a possession and moments later the final full court heave for SNU came up short.
 
Southern Arkansas improves to 7-2 inside the W.T. Watson Center this season and in all seven wins the Muleriders have held their opponents to under 65 points. SNU's 54 points on Saturday is the team's lowest scoring output since December 6, 2018; a span of 45 games. SNU entered the weekend averaging over 81 points per game.
 
Defensively, the Muleriders continue to execute as one of the nation's top three-point field goal defensive teams (11^th in Division II) held the Crimson Storm, which entered with a 40% success rate from range and the nation's ninth-most made three-pointers, to a clip of just 16.7% (4-24) with a 0-for-9 mark coming in the second half. The opponent's percentage and threes made are both season-lows for the Crimson Storm.
 
The Muleriders held the nation's third-leading scorer (28.2 ppg) in Dunn to just 14 points with no makes from three-point range in eight attempts and absorbed 24 points from Micah Speight. Both players entered Saturday's affair shooting over 44% from deep while averaging a combined 7.5 three-pointers per game, but the clamp-down perimeter guard of the Muleriders allowed just three makes from deep by the duo, all of which came from Speight in the game's first four minutes of play.
 
Southern Arkansas hits the road for a pair of pivotal games in Oklahoma as Southwestern Oklahoma (Jan. 30, 7:30 p.m.) and Northwestern Oklahoma (Feb. 1, 3 p.m.) await the Muleriders next weekend. Live coverage links are available at www.MuleriderAthletics.com.