ELLENSBURG, Wash. – The Northwest Nazarene men's basketball team erased a 16-point second-half deficit to earn a 96-93 victory Tuesday at Central Washington in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action.

The victory is the third in a row and eighth out of their last nine games for the Nighthawks (14-3 overall, 9-2 GNAC), who trail nationally-ranked Saint Martin's by one game in the league standings.

NNU trailed Central 61-45 with 18 minutes, 22 seconds left in the game and seemed on its way to a loss.

Instead, the Nighthawks used a 9-0 run and an 8-0 run to pull within 76-74 with 9:17 left.

"I thought we had some good leadership from our players," NNU coach Paul Rush said. "They responded together the way they did because a lot of guys were talking and keeping everyone on the same page and not feeling like the game was away from us. I was really impressed with our vocal leadership tonight."

NNU took the lead at 84-82 in the middle of another 8-0 run to go ahead 88-82.

Obi Megwa started it with a layup, Olamilekan Adetunji had a layup, Jayden Bezzant hit a jumper and Adonis Arms capped it with a jumper.

"I'm unbelievably impressed with their mental toughness and their maturity," Rush said. "I think we had seven or eight stops in a row that got us back into the game."

Leading 92-88 with less than 3 minutes remaining, Arms hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key as the shot clock expired with a defender in his face.

It seemed like the dagger, but the Wildcats weren't finished yet.

Two free throws and a layup by Central made it 95-92. After a missed layup by Arms and a 3-pointer by Megwa, Central had the ball down three with 23 seconds left.

Central post player Matt Poquette missed an open look, but Arms fouled Malik Montoya on the rebound.

Montoya made 1-of-2 and Adalberto Diaz tracked down the all-important rebound.

Megwa then made 1-of-2 from the line and Central missed a desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer.

"I don't think anyone left the locker room at halftime thinking we weren't going to come back and make it a game," Rush said. "We had to get our hands high on shooters and not settle for 3s. We took 15 3s in the first half and only five in the second half.

"We were really aggressive driving to the basket and it really opened up a lot of shots and free throws and opportunities for us."

Megwa finished with a team-high 24 points, eight assists and five rebounds. Arms added 22 points, five assists and five rebounds before fouling out, and Jayden Bezzant had 16 points.

Sam Roth, Adetunji and James Nelson all added eight points, while Diaz had seven points and eight rebounds.

The win for NNU is the first on the road against Central since 2014.

The Wildcats came out hot in the first half, shooting 58 percent from the field and 73 percent (11-of-15) from beyond the 3-point arc.

Jeryn Lucas had 22 points in the first half, which was more than he'd scored in a game all season. He finished with a game-high 28.

Central (9-10, 3-8) used an 18-5 run to go from down 19-13 to up 31-24 and then poured it on from there.

NNU's defense in the second half and getting to the basket let to the rally and another win for the Nighthawks.

NNU is next in action at 7 p.m. Saturday at Montana State Billings.