Boxscore

NAMPA — The analogy, “There's no place like home,” might be the most offensive thing you can say to a Northwest Nazarene basketball player right now.

For the third time in as many tries in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play, the friendly confines of the Johnson Sports Complex were anything but kind to the Northwest Nazarene men's basketball team as Montana State-Billings rallied from a 12-point deficit to defeat the Crusaders 76-74 on Thursday night.

“Right now it seems like we are playing a little better away,” NNU coach Tim Hill said, as his team is a perfect 2-0 in league road games.

“Tonight it was our defense, we were told to guard the 3 all night and get through screens, we worked on it really hard and we didn't do it and they hit their shots.”

Down 24-12 in the opening half, and 53-42 in the second, the Yellowjackets (9-4, 3-1 GNAC) hit 7-of-12 3-pointers in the second half to pull out the win.

Brett Taylor's triple, followed by one from DeAndre Chambers, quickly trimmed the Crusaders' 53-42 edge to just five points. A Lasha Parghalava 3 got MSU-Billings within one, 59-58. The 'Jackets grabbed their first lead of the night, 63-61, with 8:51 to play, on two Tyler Hentzen free throws.

“The gameplan is make them dribble it to score, and we didn't make them dribble to score,” Hills said.

The Crusaders (10-6, 2-3) also hurt their own cause on offense, getting away from the inside attack that squashed the Yellowjackets in the opening 20 minutes.

Kendall Gielow, who finished with a season-high 20 points, had 14 points in the first half, while post teammates Brain Barkdoll and David Reeher added five and four, respectively, giving the Crusaders 23 points from their bigs for a 44-35 halftime edge.  Anthony Golden finished with 11, while Louie Beech and Lateef Williams each scored 10.

“Every timeout we talked about getting inside,” Hills said. “It's a little frustrating, we're having a difficult time taking from the timeout out to the floor what we're trying to do.”

Chambers believes the Yellowjackets defense helped slow NNU's inside attack.

“We worked on red, doubling the post, and that really helped us there,” the MSU-Billings' 6-foot-2 guard said.

Chambers own play also helped the 'Jackets' cause as he finished with a game-high 21 points.  Lasha Parghalava had 15, while Derrick Wright had 14 and DaVell Jackson finished with 12.

Unwilling to let the game slip away, NNU rallied for a 69-65 edge on two Reeher free throws with 6:12 to go, but the 3-pointer again cost the Crusaders.

A Parghalava triple put the 'Jackets up 72-70, and after the Crusaders tied it, 6-7 forward Derrick Wright provided the dagger, MSU-Billings' 10th 3-pointer of the night with 2:01 to play for a 75-72 lead.

Two late turnovers stalled NNU's comeback effort. Chambers left the door open, missing 1-of-2 free throws with 11 seconds to play, but the Crusaders final shot at the buzzer was blocked, giving MSUB the road victory.

The Crusaders out-rebounded the 'Jackets 33-27, but were out-scored 10-5 at the three point line and committed 16 turnovers against just 11 for MSUB.

NNU will have the weekend off and next host Alaska Fairbanks next Thursday in Nampa in a GNAC counter.