Box Score




NAMPA, Idaho — Now that's what Crusader fans wanted!

The Northwest Nazarene men came out on fire and never let up, outgunning the Great Northwest Athletic Conference's most efficient 3-point shooting team to score the first GNAC win of the Scott Flemming era, a 98-96 thriller over Montana State Billings at the Johnson Sports Center on Thursday night.

"Long time coming, but it feels good," said Flemming, the Crusaders head coach who has more than 440 career coaching wins at the college level.

But the Yellowjackets made NNU work hard for the win, erasing a series of 11 point Crusader advantages, and a seven-point NNU lead late in the second half.

As a matter of fact, MSU Billings grabbed an 83-80 lead on a Kendall Denham 3 with just under 6 minutes remaining before a decisive 10-0 response by NNU.
 

"It'd be a shame if we let that one go because I felt we played great for most of the game," Flemming said. "We came out with a lot of energy, and they made their runs and I felt like we did a great job responding to those runs and made our own."

NNU (5-7 overall, 1-5 GNAC) came out strong and grabbed a 9-7 lead on a Detwon Rogers 3 off a Mike Wright assist.

Wright kept dishing out helpers all night long, finishing with a Crusader career-high of 12, which matched this season's GNAC single-game high set by Seattle Pacific's Bryce Leavitt.

"Just the way they were playing, they were really pressuring things, it really opened things up to really penetrate and find open guys," Wright said.

Another Wright assist, to Nikola Prvulj, led to a 3 and a 47-36 Crusader lead just before halftime.

Then a Wright dish to Marko Lepovic for 3 early in the second half made it 58-47, but as Coach Flemming said, a key for NNU was the team's ability to answer every Yellowjacket charge.

The bug push by MSU Billings (6-7, 3-2) came after a Bouna N'Diaye bucket made it a 78-71 ballgame with 9 minutes to play.

Denham scored eight of his team's next dozen points, splashing a 3 with under 6 minutes to play to give MSU Billings an 83-80 edge.

A quick timeout by Flemming allowed NNU's coach to prepare his players for the homestretch.
 

"Toward the end we were just talking about not helping as much and switching everything, and getting out on 3s," Flemming said.

Hunkering down with tough man-to-man defense, the Crusaders went on a decisive 10-0 run that saw Prvulj hit a key 3, then drive and roll home a lay-in to make it 90-83 with 3 minutes left.

Six straight free throws by Wright then iced the first GNAC win for first-year Crusader head coach, Flemming, and wrapped up an exhausting 4-game-in-8-day stretch for NNU, which next plays at St. Martin's next Thursday.

Wright added nine points and six rebounds along with his 12 assists for the Crusaders, who got huge games from Rogers, N'Diaye and Prvulj. Rogers finished with 27 points and eight rebounds, N'Diaye added 19 points and nine boards, and Prvulj scored 16 for NNU, which also got 10 points from Joel Devastey.