NAMPA, Idaho - Northwest Nazarene men's basketball made a strong comeback midway through the second half, but Montana State Billings' stifling defense allowed the Yellowjackets to pull away for a 67-55 win on Saturday night.
 
The Nighthawks fall to 7-5 overall on the season and drop their first conference game to move to 3-1 in GNAC play.
 
NNU started hot with a 17-8 lead after back-to-back triples from Ryzin Bergersen, with the second coming at the 14:18 mark. The Nighthawks would still lead by seven midway through the half, 23-16, after a Tru Allen layup with 8:41 to go.
 
The Yellowjackets turned things around from there, however, going on a 21-3 run, including 4-5 from deep, over the last eight minutes of the half to take a 37-26 lead into halftime.
 
The Nighthawks came out of halftime well with the first five points on a Biggie Bergersen triple and Gabriel Murphy layup. MSUB was able to counter and keep the lead just under double digits for the next few minutes, leading 47-39 at the 15:06 mark.
 
NNU would then rally for a 9-0 run to take their first lead since midway through the opening half. Aaron Murphy scored six straight points and then Biggie Bergersen drilled another triple to put NNU up 48-47 with 12:12 to play.
 
The Yellowjackets took the lead back, however, on a three at the 9:51 mark that put them up 52-50. They would score four more quick points to build their lead to six, and rode that momentum to a 15-5 run to close the game.
 
Biggie Bergersen led the Nighthawks win 16 points and five rebounds. Aaron Murphy added 13 points, Tru Allen tallied nine, and Gabe Murphy eight along with nine boards.
 
Allen also had five assists, a steal, and a block for NNU.
 
NNU heads out on the road for the next two weeks, starting with the trip to the Last Frontier next week with games at Alaska Fairbanks on Thursday and Alaska Anchorage on Saturday.
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