NAMPA, Idaho – The Northwest Nazarene men's basketball team lost 77-68 on Saturday to Seattle Pacific in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action.

While it certainly wasn't the result the Nighthawks wanted, there were encouraging signs.

NNU bounced back from a blowout loss Thursday to Saint Martin's by playing toe-to-toe with a Falcons team picked to finish second in the GNAC.

"I thought we played harder for the whole game," NNU redshirt junior Sam Roth said. "I thought we had consistent effort."

That effort led to the Nighthawks (3-4 overall, 0-2 GNAC) taking a 49-48 lead on a free throw by Roth with 11 minutes, 55 seconds left.

The Falcons (5-4, 2-0), though, then went on a 20-4 run to take a 15-point lead.

"We've got to learn to play within a system," NNU coach Paul Rush said. "We have some really strong, smart, high-IQ guys and we've got to use that to our advantage.

"(SPU) is a really good team in the GNAC and I think we showed we can play with them, we've just got to not let them go on some of those runs and be a little stronger defensively."

The Nighthawks had one more charge in them, pulling within 73-68 on a putback by Olamilekan Adetunji with 50 seconds remaining.
NNU couldn't get over the hump, though.

"We moved the ball way better and on defense we were communicating way better," NNU senior Adalberto Diaz said. "We are struggling to score points, but we have to keep going. It's only the second game of GNAC. We've just to keep working and getting better."

Diaz finished with 16 points and five rebounds. Jaylen Fox had 14 points, including shooting 4-of-6 from beyond the arc. George Reidy had 11 points and three assists, Ezekiel Alley had 10 points and three assists and Adetunji had seven points and seven rebounds.

Roth finished with 10 rebounds, seven assists and four steals, and Zac Furgerson had seven points off the bench.

"Offensively, we need to trust the offense," Roth said. "A lot of times, we are splitting off and trying to do our own thing a lot. Defensively, we just have to consistently be what we can be. Part of our identity is ball pressure, rebounding and finishing plays. We had lapses there a couple of times and those runs killed us. They are a good team, so they don't just let those go."

NNU plays its annual alumni game at 12:30 p.m. Saturday and then doesn't have another game until Jan. 2, when the Nighthawks travel to Simon Fraser.

"The first couple games of the year, we played really good and solid," Roth said. "These ones have been less than that. We're going to try to figure it out. We're going to keep practicing hard and watch some film and figure it out."