NAMPA, Idaho – The Northwest Nazarene men's basketball team was firing on all cylinders Saturday night.

New point guard Ezekiel Alley was getting to the basket at will. Redshirt-freshman George Reidy was soaring toward the rim. Post Gabriel Murphy threw down a tip-dunk. Sam Roth was his normal steady self.

And through it all, the Nighthawks played stifling team defense.

It added up to an 82-68 victory Saturday against Texas A&M Kingsville in the Fairfield Inn Crossover Challenge.

"When everyone is involved like that on offense and defense … that is when basketball is at its most fun," Reidy said. "When you got dude you love locking up a team and then scoring – it doesn't get much better than that."

The Nighthawks (3-0 overall) used a 16-3 run in the final minutes to blow the game open.

It was a mixture of everything that the Nighthawks hope to be offensively and defensively this season.

"It was awesome. We work really hard on creating for others," NNU coach Paul Rush said. "We do a stupid number of drills just to do that. So, when guys are playing like that offensively with everybody engaged it just led to easy open shots."

Leading 66-61 with 5 minutes, 46 seconds left, Roth hit a pair of free throws, Alley hit a 3-pointer and then had a ridiculous spinning layup through two defenders, Murphy threw down a two-handed dunk, Roth had a steal and a layup and a 3-pointer and Reidy capped it with a soaring layup over the outstretched arms of a hapless Kingsville defender.

Just like that it was 82-64 and Kingsville looked like it didn't know what hit them.

"It is really fun to have teammates who believe in each other," Alley said. "You don't have to worry about mistakes. You just go out, have fun and play hard."

NNU plays at the College of Idaho at 7:07 p.m. Tuesday in the second leg of the United Heritage Mayors' Cup.

A night after the Nighthawks struggled to a 77-74 win over winless Colorado Christian, they looked like a completely different team.

Facing an athletic and long Kingsville team, NNU used solid team defense to overcome the Javelinas.

"Last night, I didn't recognize that team defensively," Rush said. "When we're engaged and working hard defensively, when we have guys bought in and even if we might be overmatched athletically, when we have five guys playing together it is something special."

Alley had a game-high 23 points on 9-of-13 shooting. Reidy added 20 points and four assists, Roth had 12 points and four rebounds and Adalberto Diaz had 10 points and eight rebounds. Murphy chipped in 11 rebounds and Jaylen Fox had five assists.

Diaz and Reidy were named to the all-tournament team along with Central Washington's Xavier Smith, Colorado Christian's Jake Hornick and Kingsville's Sammy Brooks.

"It starts with our leadership. Sam Roth and Beto Diaz getting us locked in and our coaching staff with the scouting (reports)," Reidy said. "We pride ourselves on our defense and if we can stop teams from scoring, we are going to win a lot of basketball games. We knew these guys were going to be solid, but we were up for the challenge.

"We know we are going to be looked down and have a low preseason ranking in the GNAC. But we're ready."

They certainly looked like it Saturday.