Box Score




NAMPA, Idaho — This was the determined effort Northwest Nazarene needed, and the result they had to have as well.

The Crusaders overcame an off offensive effort in the second half by hunkering down on defense and dominating the glass in the second half, holding off a rally by Simon Fraser and downing the Clan, 82-77, in Great Northwest Athletic Conference men's basketball Saturday night at the Johnson Sports Center.
 

"As a coach you're biggest goal is to play well, and it was up and down tonight, but obviously winning the game is the ultimate goal," said NNU head men's basketball coach Scott Flemming.

"What I'm probably most proud of is when (Simon Fraser) took control and got that lead, it could have gone south on us and we really dug down deep."

Everything went right it seemed in the first half for NNU (6-9 overall, 3-7 GNAC) as the Crusaders went up 17-7 on a Nikola Prvulj 3-pointer, grabbed a 23-9 advantage on a triple by Pol Olivier, and held a 41-25 edge after a Kyle Bailey bucket just before halftime.

"Everybody was fluid in the offense, we had confidence in the guys who were shooting, spreading the confidence through the whole team; that's why everybody was knocking down shots," said NNU's Detwon Rogers, who finished the night with a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds.

But NNU's offense stalled in the second half, and that 16-point advantage quickly disappear as the Crusaders shot 7-of-27 (25.9 percent) in the final 20 minutes.

That allowed the Clan (1-15, 0-10) to go up as much as 64-57 with 6 ½ minutes to play.

Needing to do something to change the course of the game, NNU did it with a stingy match-up zone defense, and by allowing the Clan to grab just one offense rebound down the stretch.

That allowed the Crusaders to get on track, sparked by a Rogers' 3-ball.
 

A Mike Wright triple then tied it, 66-66, a Prvulj 3 gave NNU a 75-69 lead, and Bouna N'Diaye hit 11-of-12 free throws in the final 3 ½ minutes to ice the victory.

"We worked on rebounding every single day of this season, and we haven't been able to show it in the games, so it feels good to have a better rebounding game than usual and come out with the win," Rogers said, as NNU turned around the rebounding battle after halftime.

NNU allowed just two offensive boards to the Clan in the second half after 11 in the first half, and won the total rebounding battle, 23-21, in the final 20 minutes.

While Rogers led the way on the boards, Wright and N'Diaye led the way on the scoreboard with 20 points each for the Crusaders, who now hit the road for four straight games, starting at 8th-ranked and GNAC leading Western Oregon on Thursday.