NAMPA, Idaho - Northwest Nazarene men's basketball took an early lead and never looked back against Western Oregon on Thursday, defeating the Wolves 81-62.
 
The Nighthawks improve to 16-9 overall on the season and 12-5 in GNAC play. NNU has now won eight of their last 10 contests.
 
With the win, NNU has put themselves in a great position for the No. 2 seed and bye into the semifinals when the GNAC tournament begins next week. Saint Martin's lost to Central Washington on Thursday, so the Nighthawks are currently second in the standings and one game up of the Saints. As a result, here are the possible seeding scenarios following Saturday's games:

- If NNU defeats SMU on Saturday, NNU is the 2-seed 
- If NNU loses to SMU AND WWU defeats SFU, SMU is the 2-seed
- If NNU loses to SMU AND SFU defeats WWU, things get wild, and could go a dozen different ways depending on pretty much every conference result. There are too many potential two- or three-way tiebreakers to go through at this point, so we'll leave it to the GNAC to figure out if the situation arises
 
After WOU opened the game with a layup, NNU took an 8-4 lead at the 18:03 mark after a triple and layup from Tru Allen.
 
The Wolves fought back to tie the game at 11 four minutes later, but NNU then went on a 10-0 run in two minutes of action to go up 21-11 with 12:08 to play in the opening half.
 
The Nighthawks kept pushing, eventually leading by as much as 17 with 1:28 remaining after a Gabriel Murphy jumper. WOU got back-to-back buckets on their next possessions, but a layup from Christian Rose in the final seconds put NNU up 15, 44-29, going into halftime.
 
NNU still led by 12 with 13:49 to play, but then four different Nighthawks proceeded to drain triples with the last three on consecutive possessions to go up by 22, 67-45, at the 10:32 mark. Nathan Perez, Jaylen Fox, Easton Reagan, and Rayzhon Bergersen all drilled threes during the 12-2 Nighthawks run.
 
A few possessions later after a timeout, it became a 14-2 run and 24-point advantage as Rose slammed home an alley-oop from Allen off an inbounds play.
 
The Nighthawks would cruise from there, taking care of business with the 81-62 victory.
 
Tru Allen led NNU with 15 points, four steals, and three assists Gabe Murphy just missed a double-double with 14 points and nine rebounds.
 
Jaylen Fox added five assists and six points, while Christian Rose and Aaron Murphy had eight points apiece.
 
As mentioned, NNU will have their final game of the regular season this Saturday, hosting Saint Martin's at 7:30 p.m. in the Johnson Sports Center with GNAC postseason seeding on the line. It will also be Senior Night for the Nighthawks, honoring Tru Allen, Jaylen Fox, Mason Machado, Gabriel Murphy, and Christian Rose.
  Read Full Article