Box Score

NAMPA, Idaho – It was a night filled with celebrations, unfazed by the final outcome.

Northwest Nazarene celebrated its seniors, Mario Donaldson and Shayne Perryman, who capped their playing careers with the Crusader men's basketball team. Then the Crusaders honored Bob Kiel and Tiny and Mary Bellamy, inducting them into the NNU Athletic Hall of Fame.

The only sour note of the night turned out to be No. 20 Seattle Pacific holding off repeated comeback efforts by the NNU men's basketball team, handing the Crusaders a 74-60 setback in their season finale.

"It's bittersweet," coach Dave Daniels said of saying goodbye to Donaldson and Perryman. "I'm going to miss them but I am so confident they are ready for the next phase of their life and that they are going to be incredibly successful."

The Crusaders (7-19 overall, 5-13 GNAC) worked hard to be successful Saturday, but found themselves playing catch-up as the Falcons (24-5, 15-3) jumped up early, taking a 29-9 lead on two Brendan Carroll free throws with 8 minutes, 23 seconds left in the first half.

Looking to send their seniors out on a high note, NNU rallied, closing quickly and cutting the difference to 30-23 on a Michael Loomis 3-pointer with 3:28 remaining in the opening half.

But the Falcons, the regular season GNAC champs, played like champs and reestablished a big lead, going up 52-32 on a Brendan Carroll bucket with 5:45 gone in the second half.

The Crusaders still had plenty of fight left, though, and closed again, trimming the lead to 68-58 on two Donaldson free throws with 1:33 to play.

But that's where the comeback ended as SPU made 6-of-6 free throws down the stretch to finish off the win.

"I'm so proud that they kept fighting, they just continued to keep fighting and we were still in the game, we just could make a shot," Daniels said as NNU shot 34.5 percent (19-of-55) in the game.

Donaldson led the way for NNU with a team-high 15 points in his final game, while Perryman had one rebound in his farewell.

With the Crusaders only losing two seniors, the future looks bright, especially considering the contributions of freshmen Pol Olivier, Derek Isaak and Loomis, who combined scored averaged 23.7 points per game, 1/3 of the Crusaders points (71.5 ppg) this season.

"With all the growth this year, the future is amazingly bright," Daniels said.