LACEY, Wash. – Northwest Nazarene men's basketball's three-game win streak was snapped on the road at Saint Martin's on Thursday, falling to the Saints 78-75 on a buzzer beater after a wild Nighthawks comeback tied the game late.
How It Happened
SMU scored the first eight points of the game and would eventually start on a 16-7 run to open the game.
The Nighthawks responded with six-straight points to cut the deficit to three, but the Saints bounced back with a 13-3 run to go up 29-16 with 4:52 to go in the opening half. SMU would extend their lead to 15 at the break, as a buzzer-beating triple put the Saints up 43-28.
Saint Martin's opened the second half much like the first, scoring the first seven points to take their largest lead of the game of 22, 50-28, just 50 seconds into the half. NNU started to slowly chip away, cutting the deficit down to 11, 64-53, on a
Gabriel Murphy layup with 6:13 to play.
The Nighthawks still trailed by 13, 69-56, with 4:12 remaining, before the craziness began. Back-to-back triples from
James Nelson around an SMU bucket quickly cut the deficit to single digits for the first time since very early in the first half.
A dunk from
Andrew Ferrin and a
Julian Agosto free throw cut it down to six with 2:34 to go. The deficit was still six points, 75-69, with just 48 seconds to play, but Agosto then drilled a deep triple to make it a three-point game with 38 ticks on the clock.
On SMU's ensuing possession, Agosto was able to jump a passing lane for a steal, and the ball found its way to
Timothy TenKley for his fourth three-pointer of the game to tie things at 75 with 26 seconds remaining.
However, the heroics would fall short in the end, as SMU's Kyle Greeley hit a contested three from the top of the key in the final seconds to allow the Saints to escape with the win.
Nighthawks Notes
- NNU falls to 8-8 on the year and 6-5 in GNAC play, snapping the three-game win streak from last week.
- Julian Agosto had his best game as a Nighthawk, as the freshman tallied a career-high 16 points on 5-8 shooting along with four steals.
- James Nelson and Gabe Murphy both added 13 points, with Murphy also recording five rebounds and a pair of steals.
- With his four triples, Tim TenKley was the other Nighthawk in double figures with 12 points.
- Kobe Terashima and Tru Allen also tallied eight assists each.
- NNU won the turnover battle with just 11 giveaways to SMU's 20, leading to a 28-13 advantage in points off turnovers.
Next Up
The Nighthawks will play their final road game of the regular season on Saturday when they visit Western Oregon at 4:15 p.m. Pacific.
