NAMPA, Idaho – The Achilles' heel for the Northwest Nazarene men's basketball team this season has been first half deficits.

The Nighthawks struggle to get into the flow out of the gates and then generally dominate the opponents in the second half.

Tuesday night was no different, but this time NNU's rally fell short in a 99-89 loss to Central Washington in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference game at Johnson Sports Center.

"I guess it is just coming out with that firepower right at the beginning," senior Maurice Jones said of how to fix their first half woes. "Trying to find that same intensity that we have when we're down, rather than starting with a 20-point deficit and then working our way back."

Central (10-8 overall, 5-6 GNAC) was on fire in the first half, making 11 of 17 3-pointers and led by as many as 26 in the second half.

Despite that, the Nighthawks clawed their way back eventually getting as close as nine with 2 minutes left.

"We came out with no energy in the first half," NNU head coach Paul Rush said. "They continued to shoot the ball well in the second half, but we had more energy and fight."

Central only made four 3-pointers in the second half and the Nighthawks forced eight turnovers in the final 20 minutes.

"(The second half) shows we're a lot better team," Jones said, "but we have to prove that we are that defensive team; we have to show it every night, every quarter – not just 20 minutes in the second half."

The Nighthawks (9-8, 5-6) once again had balanced scoring offensively and shot 47.5 percent from the field for the game, but missed 12 free throws and shot just 7 of 27 from beyond the 3-point arc.

"It's pretty frustrating," Jones said. "We were trying to play defense as hard as we could, but our effort wasn't really there. When a team hits that many shots you have to grit your teeth and dig.

"Luckily we turned it around, but we couldn't get the win in the end."

Jayden Bezzant scored a team-high 23 points with four assists, two blocks and two steals. Maurice Jones added 18 poionts, five rebounds and three assists, while Obi Megwa had 17 points, five rebounds and five assists. Olamilekan Adetunji had his best game of the season, scoring 11 points and grabbing eight rebounds.

NNU hosts Montana State Billings at 7 p.m. Thursday.