LACEY, Wash. – Northwest Nazarene men's basketball took the top team in the GNAC down to the wire on Saturday, but fell to No. 21 Saint Martin's 58-55 to close out the regular season.
The Nighthawks fall to 12-14 on the year and 9-9 in GNAC play, but have still qualified for the GNAC Championships tournament as the 6-seed. NNU will face 3-seed Seattle Pacific at noon on Thursday at Western Washington's Carver Gym in Bellingham.
How It Happened
NNU fell behind early, as Saint Martin's jumped out to a 12-2 lead after five minutes of action. The Nighthawks withstood that early hit though, rallying for a 16-6 run to tie the game at 18 on a
Yaru Harvey bucket at the 5:59 mark.
The Nighthawks took the lead moments later on free throws from
Ryzin Bergersen, and would lead by as much as three, 26-23, after an
Andrew Ferrin layup with 1:18 to play in the opening half. Ferrin added a putback before halftime, as NNU went into the break up 28-26.
Similar to the first half, SMU opened the second half hot and took a 10-point lead, 41-31, at the 14:11 mark. NNU bounced right back again, however, scoring eight in a row to cut the deficit to two three minutes later.
NNU kept hanging around the nationally-ranked Saints the rest of the game, and eventually tied things up at 55 apiece on a floater from Bergersen with two minutes to play. SMU would get three points to none for NNU the rest of the way, however, taking the 58-55 victory.
Nighthawks Notes
- With the loss, NNU falls into a tie with Western Oregon and Central Washington at 9-9 in conference play – due to GNAC tiebreaker policies, the Nighthawks drop down to the 6-seed
- The GNAC tournament will consist of 1-seed Saint Martin's, 2-seed MSU Billings, 3-seed Seattle Pacific, 4-seed Central Washington, 5-seed Western Oregon, and 6-seed NNU
- This is the fourth-straight GNAC Championships that the Nighthawks have qualified for, earning the 3 in 2018-19, 4 in 2019-20, and 2 in 2021-22 (there was no tournament in 2020-21 due to COVID-19)
- In tonight's game, Aaron Murphy led the Nighthawks with 13 points and six boards
- Tru Allen flirted with a triple-double, recording seven points, 10 rebounds, six assists, and three steals
- Andrew Ferrin added 10 points and seven boards
- NNU outrebounded SMU 36-30, including 16-11 on the offensive end
Next Up
As mentioned, NNU will head to Bellingham this coming week to square off with Seattle Pacific at noon Pacific time on Thursday in the opening round of the GNAC Championships.
