NAMPA, Idaho – Northwest Nazarene men's basketball fell to Texas A&M International 54-51 to close out the fall portion of the schedule on Monday.
The Nighthawks head into the holiday break at 4-6 on the season while remaining 1-1 in GNAC play.
How It Happened
NNU started hot, jumping out to a 15-4 lead with nine points from
Yaru Harvey, including a steal and one-handed dunk and a triple.
The Dust Devils would clamp down on defense, however, and eventually battle back to tie the game at 24 with 2:09 to go in the first half. The TAMIU run ended up being 28-10 over the final 14 minutes of the opening period, taking a 32-25 lead into the break.
The deficit stayed just under 10 for most of the second half, with NNU cutting it to three, 48-45, on a jumper from
Tru Allen with 5:58 to play.
The Dust Devils responded with six straight points to go back up by nine, but a
Kobe Terashima free throw, Allen three-pointer, and
Aaron Murphy layup brought the game within three points again, 54-51, with 46 seconds to go.
NNU would force a TAMIU shot clock violation to get the ball back with 15 seconds left, but were unable to get a shot off in the final seconds and fell by the 54-51 score.
Nighthawks Notes
- The Nighthawks shot well in the game at 46.3%, outpacing the Dust Devils' 40% from the field
- NNU was just 3-11 from deep, however, with TAMIU shooting 10-19 (52.6%) from beyond the arc
- The Nighthawks committed 19 turnovers while TAMIU had 12
- The Murphy brothers each had 12 points to lead the Nighthawks, with Gabe adding 12 rebounds for a double-double along with four assists
- Aaron also had seven boards, just missing a double-double
- Harvey and Allen were both at nine points for the Nighthawks
Next Up
NNU enters their holiday break, taking a little over a week off before returning to GNAC play with a visit to Seattle Pacific on Thursday, December 29.
