NAMPA, Idaho – When Ezekiel Alley landed awkwardly after going up for an offensive rebound Thursday night, he feared the worst.

Alley, a junior point guard who wears a brace on his left knee from a previous knee injury, knew he hadn't torn his ACL but didn't know how bad the injury was.

"I was just kind of scared because I have some past history with my knees," he said. "(The trainer Ken Becker) did a couple things to it and tested it and said it was fine and I wanted to play, so I was ready to go."

Alley returned after halftime, finishing with a team-high 22 points to lead the Northwest Nazarene men's basketball team to an 83-75 victory against Alaska in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference game.

When he went down, head coach Paul Rush thought it was an ankle injury.

"I was just hoping he'd be back for Saturday's game," Rush said. "We put Cayden (Wright) in and he is a kid that is ready to go and played for us earlier this season. It was next man up."

Alley has enjoyed a strong season, but has been especially dominant offensively in the last five games since the Christmas break. Part of that has been the return of senior guard Jayden Bezzant and part of it is just getting comfortable in the Nighthawks' system.

He has averaged 19.6 points in the stretch as NNU (6-6 overall, 5-2 GNAC) has gone 3-2.

"What we talk to him about is not trying to get it the first time he touches the ball," Rush said. "We've been able to move him off the ball. He's been able to get the ball later in the possession where he doesn't have five guys guarding him and then he is really talented and crafty in his ability to get to the rim and hit jump shots."

The win Thursday was the second in a row for NNU and third in four games as the Nighthawks try to claw their way back into playoff position.

"Coach has talked a lot about trusting the process," NNU senior Adalberto Diaz said. "So, we just go into practice every day and try to get better. If we keep trusting the process, the results will get better."

On Thursday, Alaska had pulled within 54-49 with 8 minutes, 47 seconds remaining in the game, but the Nighthawks ripped off a 12-2 run to open up a comfortable lead.
Bezzant started it with a free throw, Gabriel Murphy had a putback, Diaz hit a jumper and Alley scored in transition to make it 61-49. Diaz then hit a 3-pointer and Alley made a short jumper and just like that it was 66-51 with 5:01 remaining.

"We got going in transition," Rush said. "We had a couple of layups and a couple of ball screens in transition and got to the basket. At halftime, we talked about how we weren't pushing the tempo we wanted to push. That stretch, we got going in transition and that helped us a bunch."

Alaska had one more run in it, as GNAC-leading scorer Shadeed Shabazz got going.

NNU led 72-61 with 2:41 left and then Shabazz scored 12 points in 90 seconds to pull the Nanooks (5-10, 4-3) within five, but it was close as they would get.

"We were just trying to force him to his offhand and have everybody help on him and it worked for the most part," Alley said. "He got going at the end, but it's not bad. We got the win."

Olamilekan Adetunji had nine points and 17 rebounds, including 10 on the offensive glass. Diaz added 13 points and five rebounds, George Reidy had 16 points and Bezzant had seven. Bezzant is four points away from 1,000 for his career.

NNU hosts Alaska Anchorage at 5:15 p.m. Saturday.