ELLENSBURG, Wash. - Needing a win in their final regular season game to remain in NCAA postseason contention, Northwest Nazarene men's basketball delivered with a 90-75 victory over Central Washington on Saturday night.

With the win, NNU improves to 11-4 on the year. The Nighthawks were ranked fourth in the latest NCAA West Region rankings, and with six teams making the postseason from the region, NNU now hopes that a 1-1 weekend against the Wildcats is good enough for selection to the NCAA Championships.

The Nighthawks will find out if they are selected for the postseason tomorrow night (March 7) at 8:30 p.m. MT during the NCAA's DII Men's Basketball Selection Show. The show will be streamed in full on NCAA.com. If selected, NNU will travel to Golden, Colorado next weekend, the site of the West Regional hosted by Colorado School of Mines.

Ezekiel Alley led the Nighthawks on the night with 26 points, seven rebounds, and two assists, shooting 50% from the field. James Nelson was next with 18 points and three boards, while Kobe Terashima had 10 points for NNU. Gabriel Murphy added six rebounds and seven points, while Tru Allen dished out four assists and scored six points off the bench.

After a close first couple of minutes, NNU took a 20-18 lead on a Nelson jumper at the 11:26 mark of the first half and never looked back. The bucket started a 24-7 run over the next eight minutes, with an Alley jumper making it 44-25 in favor of the Nighthawks with 3:05 to go until halftime. Alley would also convert an and-one just before the break, and NNU went to halftime with a 52-36 advantage.

The Nighthawks never let CWU claw back into the game, keeping the margin in double-digits for the rest of the contest and leading by as much as 22 points during the second half before coming away with the 15-point win.