NAMPA, Idaho – Northwest Nazarene men's basketball earned a big, hard-fought win on Senior Night on Saturday, holding off Simon Fraser 65-60 to keep hold of fourth place in the GNAC standings and clinch a spot in the GNAC Championships.
The Nighthawks improve to 12-12 on the year and are now 9-7 in GNAC play with two games remaining in the regular season.
How It Happened
NNU and SFU got off to a slow start, with Simon Fraser taking a 13-10 lead after the first eight minutes. NNU then rattled off a 6-0 run, capped by back-to-back jams from
Christian Rose and
Ryzin Bergersen to take a 16-13 lead at the 8:50 mark.
The Nighthawks led by as much as five the rest of the half, but the lead was cut to two before the period ended with NNU going into the break up 30-28.
NNU was able to pull away slightly in the middle of the second half, taking a seven-point lead, 52-45, after an
Aaron Murphy layup with 7:20 to play. SFU would answer with five straight to cut the lead to two, however, and eventually tied the game at 55 with 4:35 remaining.
The Nighthawks had an answer, though, as Bergersen and Rose nailed back-to-back triples to go up by six, and NNU held off the Red Leafs the rest of the way for the five-point victory.
Nighthawks Notes
- The Nighthawks keep hold of fourth place in the GNAC, a game behind Seattle Pacific for third and a game ahead of Western Oregon
- NNU has clinched a spot in the GNAC Championships tournament, which takes six of the 10 conference teams, as they are now 2.5 games ahead of seventh-place Western Washington with just two games to play
- NNU won the rebounding battle 40-33, including an impressive 16-6 on the offensive glass
- The Nighthawks forced 19 SFU turnovers, with 14 of them coming via steals
- Bergersen led NNU with 16 points including three triples
- Tru Allen had 14 points and five boards
- Andrew Ferrin tallied 10 points, tying his NNU career high, along with six rebounds
- Gabe Murphy added 11 boards, while Kobe Terashima notched seven assists
- NNU improves to 20-4 all-time against Simon Fraser, including 10-2 at home, the last six in a row, and 13 of the last 14
Next Up
NNU heads to Western Oregon and Saint Martin's next week to close out the regular season, with the GNAC Championships to follow in Bellingham.
