NAMPA, Idaho – While Ethan McPherson’s only basket Friday night had little to do with the final score margin, it was easily the biggest shot of the night.

The 5-foot-10, 175-pound Northwest Nazarene guard caught a pass from Zac Furgerson in the right corner and drained a 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded at the end of the first half.

The Nighthawks defeated Cal Miramar 98-58 in an exhibition at the annual Homecoming festivities.

For McPherson, though, the shot represented the end of a long journey.

“That was fun. That was awesome,” NNU guard Sam Roth said. “He worked his butt off to get on the court. He deserved that. It was a cool moment.”

McPherson worked the last two years as a team manager before walking on to the team this season.

“There is not a harder working kid,” NNU coach Paul Rush said. “He has worked as a manager for two years doing laundry and all the hard work, and not just that but non-glamorous work. At the same time, he is doing our strength and conditioning and doing individual workouts and really pushing himself to get better.

“For him to have a moment in front of the Homecoming crowd was special.”

For his part, McPherson played it down. Though sources say he couldn’t stop smiling in the locker room at halftime.

“I was thinking the team has my back and it is a shot I practice all the time and I was ready to take it,” he said. “It was really exciting to get my first points as a college basketball player.”

The bucket was one of many highlights on the night for the Nighthawks against the out-matched Fighting Falcons.

Jaylen Fox was perfect from the field on his way to 15 points, Adalberto Diaz had a team-high 18 points and eight rebounds, Roth finished with 14 points and four assists and George Reidy had 12 points, five assists and four steals.

Redshirt-freshman Gabriel Murphy also brought down the house with a pair of emphatic dunks and a blocked shot. The large student-section crowd serenaded the big man with chants of, “Gabe! Gabe! Gabe!”

While the game doesn’t count in the statistics or the standings, it was a good way for the Nighthawks to get everyone on the court and work through some of the first home game jitters.

Fox, Murphy, Reidy, McPherson and Cayden Wright were all playing for the first time in their careers at home, while transfer Delveion Jackson was also making his debut.

“It was good to see us get better in the second half. We kind of calmed down the nerves and stop playing in a frenzy,” Rush said. “I think that was hard in the first half, because of the jitters of the game and the crowd and all that stuff. I think that was hard to overcome in the first half.”

NNU hosts College of Idaho at 7:07 p.m. Tuesday in the first leg of the annual United Heritage Mayors’ Cup.