Box Score




NAMPA, Idaho — It turned out to be a tale of two halves for the Crusaders on Tuesday night, and maybe a bit of a story of playing two different teams.

Battling the Great Northwest Athletic Conference's top scoring team bucket for bucket, the Northwest Nazarene men's basketball team went into the locker room in great position to secure victory against visiting Central Washington.

Over the final 20 minutes, though, the Wildcats were a different team offensively and simply couldn't miss, rolling to a 98-72 win at the Johnson Sports Center.

"They're a really good team, they hit everything they shot," NNU head men's basketball coach Scott Flemming said.
 

The Wildcats shot 45.5 percent in an evenly played opening stanza, then buried 20-of-24 shots at one point to break the game open. CWU shot 74.2 percent (23-of-31) in the final half.

Before the deluge, the Crusaders (4-7 overall, 0-5 GNAC) did good battling with the visitors as a Joel Devastey bucket tied it 10-10, and another Devastey basket cut a 9-point deficit down to 31-29 with less than seven minutes remaining in the opening half.

"I think we did a good job pounding the ball inside," Flemming said, adding, "they really had trouble guarding Joel and I thought that was a big part of the first half."
Devastey finished the first 20 minutes with 10 points and five rebounds.

Continuing to battle, NNU tied it at 40-40 on a Gonzo Santana layup in the final 75 seconds before heading to the break down just 42-40.

Out of the locker room, the Wildcats (8-2, 3-2) tried to break away, but a Kyle Bailey bucket and two Bouna N'Diaye free throws cut a 52-44 margin down to just a 4-point difference.

Then everything went the Wildcats way.

Central Washington hit 9-of-10 shots from the field, including 4-of-5 3-pointers, and tossed in 3-of-4 free throws during a 25-6 charge.
 

 
NNU managed just a bucket apiece from N'Diaye, Detwon Rogers and Nikola Prvulj as the Crusaders went an icy 3-for-12 from the field with four turnovers, dooming their hopes.

"When they made that run, instead of us digging in and really competing, we kind of backed down a little bit," Flemming said.

"We're doing some soul-searching right now," NNU's coach added after his team's fifth straight setback, "for this season we've got to try to do our best to get this team to do the best that we can and compete. Sometimes we do and sometimes we don't."

The Crusaders don't have to wait long as their next chance to compete comes Thursday night as NNU wraps up a 4-game-in-8-day home stand by hosting Montana State Billings at 7 p.m.

Devastey led the way for NNU in Tuesday's contest with 17 points and eight rebounds, while N'Diaye chipped in 14 points and nine boards, and Prvulj scored 12 points for the Crusaders.