NAMPA, Idaho – James Nelson had been in a funk.

The freshman had struggled shooting the ball the past three games, but his teammates and coaches had faith in him and it paid off Saturday.

Nelson scored a career-high 22 points, including 11 during a big second-half run as the Northwest Nazarene men's basketball team defeated Simon Fraser 88-72 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action.

"He's a guy that we know is a scorer," NNU coach Paul Rush said. "That's honestly what we recruited him to do. We just didn't expect him to do it much as a freshman. It was great to see him have that kind of game. It was nice to see him get out of that funk and score."

The win was the fourth in a row for NNU (10-2 overall, 5-1 GNAC), which remains tied with three other teams atop the conference.

Nelson had scored just 10 points in his previous three games, only playing nine minutes in two of them as he struggled to get on track.

Against the Clan (7-7, 1-5), he had just two points at halftime before flipping a switch in the second half.

"In the second half, he got it going a little bit," sophomore Sam Roth said. "When he gets going his instincts just kick in. He's a good player and he was making a lot of shots. We're glad he is just a freshman."

Nelson led the state of Utah in scoring his senior year in high school, so filling it up isn't exactly surprising. Doing it at the college level is a different beast, though.

He had only scored in double digits once this season – 10 against NAIA Northwest Christian – and was averaging just 5.5 per game.

After a Simon Fraser 3-pointer made it 56-47 with 11 minutes, 40 seconds remaining, Nelson took over.

He made two jumpers, point guard Obi Megwa had a three-point play, and then Nelson had a layup, a 3-pointer and a jumper to make it 70-50 with 8:07 to go.

Jayden Bezzant then made two free throws, before Nelson capped the run with another 3-pointer and a 75-52 lead.

"My teammates helped me get open shots," he said. "They set good screens for me, moved the ball really for me and we played really good team defense which led to good team offense and I capitalized on the opportunity.

"I try to hustle every single play. I happened to get opportunities and good things came out of it."

Nelson also set career-highs in field goals attempted (14), made (9), 3-pointers attempted (4), made (2), blocks (2) and steals (2).

Quite a night for the lone freshman on the active roster.

"It's been a lot of ups and downs for sure," he said. "It is a rough transition going from high school to college, but I've had the best teammates who have helped me. I owe it all to them. The coaches and my teammates have put their trust into me and thankfully I've been able to show I can play at this level."

The Nighthawks got contributions from up and down the lineup Saturday, as role players Zac Furgerson, Sam Franks and Luke Wicks all got playing time.

NNU came in with a game plan to try and press all game and tire Simon Fraser out. To do that it meant emptying the bench a bit.

"In the second half, some guys weren't playing so hard so I was pulling them out and looking for guys who were going to play all 94 feet," Rush said. "Those guys ran out there and extended our lead. It was good to see that. Those guys work their tails off in practice every day, so it was nice to see them play and not just in the last two minutes, but helping us win the basketball game."

Megwa scored a game-high 24 points with seven rebounds, four assists and three steals. Adonis Arms added 13 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals and Roth had eight points and four rebounds. Olamilekan Adetunji added 11 rebounds, while Felix White had eight.

NNU hits the road next week, playing at Alaska on Thursday and Alaska Anchorage on Saturday.