LACEY, Wash. – The Northwest Nazarene men's basketball team suffered its first loss of the season Saturday, falling 88-86 to Saint Martin's in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference game.

NNU (6-1 overall, 1-1 GNAC) was off to its best start since 2007, but the Nighthawks couldn't quite rally against the team picked to win the GNAC this season.

"Starting against the 1-2 teams in the preseason gives us a great opportunity to evaluate what we need to work on," NNU coach Paul Rush said. "We wanted to be 2-0, but we can go and look at this game and see how they guarded us and how we guarded them and it gives us things to work on with a longer stretch of practice coming up."

The Nighthawks trailed 75-64 with 1 minute, 43 seconds left before putting together a furious rally. Adonis Arms made a layup, then Obi Megwa made three consecutive 3-pointers, Arms made five free throws and then hit two 3-pointers.

In the middle of all the scoring for NNU, though, Saint Martin's (7-1, 2-0) was 13-of-14 from the line to get the win.

"We made every shot and made it exciting," Rush said of the late run. "Obi and Adonis hit some big shots, but they did a great job of making their free throws. They did what they were supposed to do."

Obi Megwa had a game-high 25 points and seven rebounds, while Adonis Arms finished with 10 points in just 19 minutes as he was plagued by foul trouble. Jayden Bezzant added 13 and Adalberto Diaz had 12 points and seven rebounds.

The Nighthawks have two weeks off before hosting Portland Bible at 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 15 in an exhibition game.