NAMPA, Idaho - Northwest Nazarene men's basketball earned an impressive and crucial GNAC victory on Saturday afternoon, defeating Western Washington 75-72 in thrilling fashion.
 
The Nighthawks improve to 10-7 overall on the season and 6-3 in GNAC play halfway through the conference slate.
 
NNU started well with a 9-6 lead after a Gabriel Murphy layup at the 15:40 mark. The momentum quickly turned to the Vikings, however, as WWU went on a 15-0 run over the next five minutes to take a 21-9 lead.
 
The Nighthawks responded in a big way, though, countering with a 20-6 run over the following six and a half minutes. A Ryzin Bergersen layup tied the game at 27 and a pair of free throws from Yaru Harvey put NNU back on top 29-27 with 1:25 remaining in the first half.
 
The teams exchanged buckets from there, heading into the break tied at 31.
 
The game was as tight as could be for almost 10 minutes in the second half, with neither team going up by more than two points before Bergersen drilled a three-pointer at the 10:36 mark to put the Nighthawks up four, 47-43. Aaron Murphy followed with a layup to make it a six-point lead.
 
Another triple from Bergersen gave NNU their largest lead of the game at 10 points at the 3:07 mark, 61-51. WWU did not go away quietly, though, and made extremely tough shots down the stretch to cut NNU's lead to just two at 70-68 with 20 seconds remaining.
 
The Nighthawks would make their free throws though, adding five more before the final horn sounded to take the 75-72 win.
 
The 72 points that the Vikings were held to by the Nighthawks is the second-lowest scoring output of the season for WWU, who averaged 93.8 points per game entering the contest.
 
Bergersen led the Nighthawks with career-highs in both points at 27 and rebounds with eight. He was 9-16 (56%) from the field and 4-7 from deep.
 
Gabe Murphy registered another double-double with 11 points and five boards, while brother Aaron Murphy notched 14 points and seven rebounds. Jaylen Fox added four assists.
 
NNU will be on the road next week, visiting Montana State Billings on Thursday, Feb. 1 and Seattle Pacific on Saturday, Feb. 3.
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