CALDWELL, Idaho – The Northwest Nazarene University men's basketball team defeated the University of Montana Western 81-78 on Friday night in the opening game of the 2009 Wendy's Holiday Classic, hosted by The College of Idaho at the J.A. Albertson Activities Center in Caldwell.

The Crusaders, now 6-1 overall, were led by Louie Beech who scored a team-high 23 points and Drew Eisinger who finished with 13.

“Louie did a nice job of cutting without the basketball tonight,” commented NNU head coach Tim Hills.  “He was able to get himself open prior to the pass and then finished strong.”

The victory was the 500th win for coach Hills while coaching four-year men's college basketball.  Hills is 500-450 overall coaching four-year college men, sports a 95-22 record at the two-year level (Chemeketa Community College, 1983-87), and is 31-23 coaching four-year women's basketball (Western Oregon Univ., 2000-03), bringing his all-time career record to 626-495.

Coach Hills collected 394 of his wins in 23 years at Corban College (formerly Western Baptist) and is coaching his 31st year of four-year men's hoops and 36th year overall.

Montana Western (10-4) was led by Terry Hauser who scored a game-high 24 points, hitting on five-of-11 three pointers.  Cody Thueringer added 12 points and Layne Glaus chipped in 11.

The Crusaders out-rebounded the Bulldogs 34-32 and shot 49-percent (26-53) from the floor and 41-percent (7-17) from the three point line.

Both Drew and Jamie Eisinger finished with five assists for NNU, however, the Crusaders committed 22 turnovers against only 11 UMW giveaways.  NNU was able to overcome their generosity by going 22 of 27 from the free throw line (81.5-percent).

NNU will face Portland Bible College tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m. in their final game of the 2009 Wendy's Holiday Classic.

Boxscores and files will follow later tonight