BELLINGHAM, Wash. - Northwest Nazarene men's basketball has arrived in Bellingham and is getting set to take on Seattle Pacific in the opening game of the men's portion of the 2023 GNAC Basketball Championships.

Northwest Nazarene, the No. 6 seed, is making its fourth consecutive GNAC Championships appearance and is looking for its first win in the tournament since 2019. While averaging 66.1 points per game, 10th in the conference, the Nighthawks lead the GNAC with 66.4 points allowed per game, are second with a .430 field goal percentage defense and rank third with 37.1 rebounds per game. 

Sophomore guard Tru Allen paces NNU offensively with 12.4 points per game and ranks second in the GNAC with 1.88 steals per game. Junior forward Gabriel Murphy leads the conference with 8.8 rebounds per game and is among the Division II leaders with 3.52 offensive boards per contest. The duo were also both just selected to the All-GNAC teams, with Murphy on the Second Team and Allen an Honorable Mention honoree.

The GNAC Men's Basketball Championships begin with the quarterfinals on Thursday. No. 3 Seattle Pacific and No. 6 Northwest Nazarene square off at noon with No. 4 Central Washington facing No. 5 Western Oregon playing at 2:15 p.m.

The winner of the Seattle Pacific/Northwest Nazarene game will face No. 2 Montana State Billings in the semifinals on Friday at noon. The winner of the Central Washington/Western Oregon game will face No. 1 Saint Martin's at 2:15 p.m. The championship game will be on Saturday at 5 p.m.

The winner of the GNAC Championships receives the conference's automatic berth to the NCAA Division II Championships.

Tickets for the GNAC Basketball Championships are available at GNACtickets.com. All games will be live-streamed on the conference's YouTube page, GNAC.tv.