Box Score




NAMPA, Idaho — The Crusaders turned a hard week of work on defense into a victory Thursday night.

After trading baskets over the opening 12 minutes with visiting St. Martin's, the Northwest Nazarene men's basketball team clamped down on the Saints, powering NNU to an 82-69 victory in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action at the Johnson Sports Center.
 

"I thought we did a really good job of making them earn their shots," NNU head coach Scott Flemming said, as NNU held the Saints to 9-of-25 shooting (36 percent) in the second half to pull away. "I though our defense was the key tonight."

Early on, neither team played much defense as the Crusaders (6-7 overall, 3-4 GNAC) opened by hitting 6-of-10 shots and building a 14-10 advantage just 4 ½ minutes into the game.

The Saints (8-6, 3-4) kept pace as they hit 10-of-18 from the field, and after a Jordan Kitchen pull-up jumper with 8:16 left until halftime, they held a 30-23 lead on the host Crusaders.

A quick timeout called by Coach Flemming changed everything.

"We were telling our guys that, 'we're just trying to outscore them right now, we're just trading baskets,'" NNU's coach said, "'and we worked too hard on our defense to do this.'"

NNU's defense then clamped down during a 9-2 run that evened the score, as two Maurice Jones free throws tied it, 32-32.

The Crusaders continued to be stingy hosts, too, allowing just three buckets to the visitors the final 8 minutes of the half as NNU took a 38-36 lead into the break.

And with stop after stop, that led grew in the second half as Bouna N'Diaye tossed in two points after a NNU defensive stand, putting the Crusaders up 59-52 with 10 minutes left.
 

And after a turnover, Kaileb Rodriguez slammed home two more for a 66-56 lead.

The Crusader advantage grew to as much as 80-64 after another stop led to a Jayden Bezzant jumper, as NNU's defense iced this victory.

Of course, the NNU offense did pretty well, too, as the Crusaders shot 32-of-62 in the win (51.6 percent), hit 10-of-11 free throws and outshot the perimeter prolific Saints — who average 9.1 triples per game — 8-6 in 3-pointers.

All five starters finished in double digits scoring to lead NNU, with Rodriguez turning in game-highs of 22 points and 11 rebounds to lead NNU.

Jones added 18 points and 10 rebounds, Bezzant scored 16, and N'Diaye and Pol Olivier each scored 11 points apiece for the Crusaders, who look to build Thursday's victory into a win streak when they host Seattle Pacific on Saturday at 7 p.m.