NAMPA, Idaho – Olamilekan Adetunji had two possessions late in Saturday's win that showed what makes him so important to the Northwest Nazarene men's basketball team.

With the Nighthawks suddenly clinging to a seven-point lead, Adetunji grabbed a loose ball and threw it to a teammate while falling out of bounds. After a missed shot at the other end, he fought through traffic for an offensive rebound.

That sort of hustle sums up the man they call Spider. On Saturday, he had his fourth double-double of the season to lead the Nighthawks to an 88-80 victory against Montana State Billings in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action.

"It's my senior year and I've got to bring everything," he said. "It's go hard or go home. My style of play is to hustle, dive on loose balls and play aggressive."

He finished with 12 points, 13 rebounds, three steals and two blocked shots. He had a pair of dunks, including one where he stole the ball near the 3-point line and went coast-to-coast.

"His energy level has just been tremendous," NNU coach Paul Rush said. "He is a kid who has been with us for four years and has put in a lot of work and a lot of time in summers and falls and it is great to see him be able to put together some games like this."

The win following Tuesday's 64-59 loss at Central Washington keeps the Nighthawks (12-7 overall, 9-5 GNAC) in second place, tied with Alaska and Western Washington.

"It is always good after a loss to bounce back and get a W no matter who it is," senior Jayden Bezzant said. "We did have times where we had some lapses, though, and that is something we need to work on for sure."

NNU used a 15-2 run in the early going to take control of the game and were rarely threatened the rest of the night.

Bezzant started it with a jumper and a layup, Adetunji had a jumper, George Reidy made four free throws, Bezzant had another layup and Jaylen Fox capped it with a 3-pointer. Just like that it was 19-10.

The Nighthawks eventually led by as many as 19 in the first half and maintained a double-digit lead until the final 90 seconds.

Bezzant finished with a game-high 24 points, making 11-of-21 from the field including 10-of-15 on two-point attempts.

"They were going under screens, so that was the shot they gave me," Bezzant said of his mid-range game Saturday. "I thought I'd test it out a little bit and it felt good. I like the midrange. I know I can get to the midrange whenever I want, so it is kind of a fallback for me."

Ezekiel Alley added 18 points on 7-of-13 shooting, while Adalberto Diaz had 11 points, Fox nine and Reidy nine points and five rebounds.

The Nighthawks head to Alaska for a pair of tough road games, playing at Anchorage on Thursday and at Alaska on Saturday afternoon.

"It's definitely on defense where we need to lock in," Bezzant said. "Fairbanks has really good guards and Anchorage can shoot the lights out, so we need to lock in."

NNU is 4-4 on the road this season and only Seattle Pacific, which has just one conference loss, has a better road record.

"We have a really mature group as far as sticking with our process, so I think we've done really well on the road this year because of that," Rush said. "It is a tough road trip against two really good teams and we have to be locked into that process and be ready to go next Thursday."