Boxscore
NAMPA, Idaho - Shooting a scorching 68-percent from the three-point line, the Northwest Nazarene men's basketball team defeated Saint Martin's University 91-72 on Saturday night, hitting 15 of 22 treys in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference game at the Johnson Sports Center in Nampa.
The Crusaders (13-8, 5-5 GNAC) inside-out attack was led by
Kendall Gielow with 18 points. Gielow finished eight-of-11 from the field as the NNU offense shot 59-percent (36-61) overall from the field.
Louie Beech and
Anthony Golden both came off the bench to ignite the Crusaders, scoring a respective 17 and 15 points on a combined eight-of-11 shooting from behind the arc.
Jamie Eisinger also reached double-figures with 10, while
Drew Eisinger finished with eight points and a game-high six assists, as the Crusaders posted a season-low nine turnovers with a 24-to-9 assist to turnover ratio.
Saint Martin's (12-10, 2-9 GNAC) was led by Jeremy Green's game-high 24 points, while Blake Poole finished with an impressive 15 points, 16 rebound double-double. Roger O'Neill scored 17 and pulled down six rebounds.
Tied for the fourth time at 19-19 with 11:51 left in the first half, the Crusaders constructed a 14-3 run that included six points from Golden, a jumper from
Jamie Eisinger, and three-pointers from both Beech and Gielow. SMU was held to three free throws from Poole during the run that found NNU leading 33-22 with 7:33 left in the period.
Green hit a jumper in the paint for the Saints to cut it back to single-digits (33-24) with 7:04 left, but
Jamie Eisinger answered with another lay-in off the dribble to push the lead to double-digits for the final time at 35-24 with 6:48 to go. The Crusaders would retain the double-figure margin the remainder of the game, leading by as many as 25 (70-45, 10:25) in the second half.
SMU out-rebounded the Crusaders 33-27 and shot 12-of-17 from the free throw line, while NNU was just four-of-eight.
NNU will travel to Montana State University Billings next Thursday and then travel to Central Washington University next Saturday for a pair of GNAC road counters. Both games begin at 7 p.m. local time.
