Box Score

FAIRBANKS, Alaska — A good season ended badly Saturday night in Alaska for the Crusader men's basketball team.

Knowing with a win they'd be in the postseason, the Northwest  Nazarene men's basketball team played its hardest only to see a 3-pointer just before the buzzer bounce off the iron, and out, sealing a 73-70 setback to host Alaska.

With the loss, the Crusaders finished in a three-way tie for the sixth and final Great Northwest Athletic Conference playoff spot, but were left out of the postseason, losing a tie-breaker to Montana State Billings.

The night saw NNU continually battle back to keep up with the Nanooks, who looked to play the spoiler roll.

A Maurice Jones 3-point capped a 10-2 run and put the Crusaders (12-14 overall, 9-11 GNAC) on top 21-19 midway through the first half, and a layup at the buzzer by Bouna N'Diaye tied the game, 33-33, at the half.

Alaska (13-16, 8-12) opened up a 10-point lead with eight minutes to go, putting the Crusaders in danger as they needed a victory to advance to the postseason.

Charging hard to make that happen, a Pol Olivier driving layup with 4 ½ minutes left trimmed the difference to 63-60, and an N'Diaye 3-ball with 2 minutes to play got the Crusaders as close as 70-68 down.

Trailing 73-70 heading into the final minute, NNU twice had shots at forcing overtime, but two 3-point attempts missed the mark as the Nanooks held on for an upset that ends the Crusaders season.

A strong season that saw NNU in postseason contention through the year, but the difference in a three-way tie with MSU Billings (14-14, 9-11) and Central Washington (14-12, 9-11) — who all split their season series with a win apiece against the other school — came down to a 100-93 win by the Yellowjackets over GNAC regular-season champion Western Washington back on Dec. 31.

The loss ends the career of three NNU seniors — Kaileb Rodriguez, who finished the night with eight points and two rebounds, and Pol Olivier, who had 12 points, one rebound, one assist and one steal in his final collegiate game.

And also playing his final game for NNU was N'Diaye who had 20 points to move to No. 35 on the Crusaders all-time list with 1,025 for his career. N'Diaye added three rebounds, two assists and a steal on the night, while Jones led NNU with 23 points and 18 rebounds.