NAMPA, Idaho – The Northwest Nazarene men's basketball team lost its Great Northwest Athletic Conference opener Thursday, falling 84-63 to Saint Martin's.

The Nighthawks (3-3 overall, 0-1 GNAC) struggled on both sides of the ball in the second half as Saint Martin's used a 21-4 run to blow the game open.

"We have a young team and there are going to be some up and down games scoring for us," NNU coach Paul Rush said. "That is why we have to stay committed to being a great defensive team."

The Nighthawks have showed at times this season that they are certainly capable of playing dominating defense. In the first half Thursday, they held the Saints to 32 points and 38.7-percent shooting.

At Cal State Los Angeles last week, the Nighthawks played 10 minutes of stifling defense to nearly erase a big deficit.

"Team chemistry is great, but the process is definitely a process," NNU redshirt freshman George Reidy said. "It is going to take time. It's one day and one game at a time and it's not all going to be figured out by Saturday.

"One thing this team does a really good job at is striving every day to get better."

Reidy scored a team-high 24 points, grabbed six rebounds and dished out four assists. He was one of the few Nighthawks able to consistently break down Saint Martin's stifling zone.

"Our mindset going into this game was to attack their zone and not let the ball stay stagnant," he said. "Teammates found me on the outside and set good screes and I was able to find some lanes and kind of get downhill and score a little bit."

Adalberto Diaz added 15 points and was the only other NNU player in double digits.

The teams went back and forth trading the lead for the first 30 minutes of action with Saint Martin's up 60-56 after a jumper by NNU's Diaz with 9:09 left in the game.

The Saints (3-4, 1-0) then outscored the Nighthawks 24-7 the rest of the game.

"We have to go back and watch the film and make sure we are making strides forward," Rush said. "We need to find the positives and keep building on them."

Things don't get any easier for NNU, which hosts Seattle Pacific at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. The Falcons were picked to finish second in the preseason coaches poll and were NNU's nemesis last season. SPU defeated the Nighthawks in the last game of the regular season and then eliminated them in the GNAC tournament semifinals.

"We're going to hit the film room and learn what happened on defense – that is where it all starts," Reidy said. "We have to bounce back and come out fearless against SPU."

Jaylen Fox added seven points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals for the Nighthawks.