BELLINGHAM, Wash. – In their last three road games, the Northwest Nazarene men's basketball team found itself down double digits in the final 10 minutes.

Two of those times, the Nighthawks were able to rally. But after they failed to do so Thursday at Simon Fraser, head coach Paul Rush hoped his team to come out energized on defense and take control of the game.

The Nighthawks (16-4 overall, 11-3 GNAC) did just that Saturday, leading from wire-to-wire to defeat Western Washington 90-79 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action.

"The level of focus that our guys had coming into this game was really impressive," Rush said. "They were locked in defensively and ready to play the game really hard."

The Nighthawks had lost six games in a row at Western Washington (12-12, 6-8) and swept the season series for the first time since the 2010-11 season.

A big part why was a 15-2 run late in the second half that blew the game open.

After the Vikings scored to make it 69-65 with 11 minutes, 30 seconds remaining, Olamilekan Adetunji had a three-point play and another free throw, Obi Megwa and Adonis Arms had nifty finishes at the rim, Sam Roth and Jayden Bezzant added layups and Roth drained a 3-pointer.

Just like that, the Nighthawks led 84-67 with 5:37 left.

It wasn't all offense, though. The Nighthawks forced nine one-and-out possessions during the streak and two turnovers.

"We want to build momentum on the defensive end," Rush said. "At one of the timeouts we talked about building the lead by getting stops and we did a good job of that."

The win was a big bounce back from the loss at Simon Fraser on Thursday and keeps the Nighthawks at most one game back of Saint Martin's in the race for the top seed in the GNAC. It also moves the Nighthawks closer to clinching their first playoff spot in four years. NNU has a five-game lead on the seventh spot with six games to play.

Obi Megwa finished with 20 points, 11 rebounds and five assists, while Adonis Arms had 17 points and seven rebounds.

Adetunji had 12 points and 11 rebounds. James Nelson added 11 points and Bezzant had 11 points.

Bezzant was playing with a bone bruise, while Arms and Diaz were both sick and Megwa was getting over a cold.

"We had enough reasons to pack it in, especially after the loss Thursday," Rush said. "But they showed resiliency and toughness. I was really impressed with that."

NNU returns home to host Alaska Anchorage at 7 p.m. Thursday.