ELLENSBURG, Wash. - Northwest Nazarene men's basketball saw their second-straight GNAC tournament title hopes end in the semifinals against Alaska Anchorage on Friday night, dropping a heartbreaker to the Seawolves 64-63.
 
The Nighthawks move to 17-10 overall, and will now be forced to wait until Sunday night's NCAA DII Selection Show to find out if their season will continue. NNU was slotted in the eighth and final qualifying spot in the last NCAA Regional Rankings on Wednesday, so they could still get into the tournament if lower-ranked teams don't either win their conference tournaments and earn auto-bids or have impressive enough victories in those conference tournaments to pass the Nighthawks in the eyes of the committee.
 
In tonight's semifinal, the Nighthawks jumped off to a great start with an 8-0 run to open the game. Ryzin Bergersen got the scoring started with a driving layup, followed by two buckets from Gabriel Murphy and a layup from Jaylen Fox. UAA finally got on the board at the 16:13 mark with a triple that made it 8-3 NNU.
 
NNU pushed their lead to 10, 15-5, on a pair of free throws from Nathan Perez at the 12:07 mark, but Alaska Anchorage countered with a 13-7 run to cut the lead to four with just under nine minutes to go in the opening half.
 
Tru Allen stopped the run with a deep step-back three, though, and the Nighthawks would build the lead back up to as much as 10 the rest of the half before going into the break up six, 35-29.
 
NNU held a 20-8 advantage in the paint, but six UAA triples were the main factor keeping the Seawolves in the game at the halfway point.
 
Alaska Anchorage took hold of the momentum to start the second half, opening on a 12-5 run to take their first lead of the game, 41-40, at the 14:59 mark. Biggie Bergersen immediately put the Nighthawks back on top, though, with a triple just 16 seconds later.
 
NNU kept a small lead over the next five minutes, but UAA would take the lead back at the 8-minute mark with a layup that made it 51-49 Seawolves. That was the first of five lead changes in a span of just over three minutes, with UAA gaining the advantage back on a triple with 4:41 remaining that made it 56-54.
 
UAA's Sawyer Storms then came alive with threes on back-to-back possessions around a layup from Gabe Murphy, making it 62-56 UAA with 2:27 to play. Christian Rose cut the deficit to three with an and-one at the 1:27 mark, and after a UAA bucket, Rose sunk two more free throws to make it a 64-61 deficit with 38 seconds remaining.
 
Jaylen Fox then got a steal off the next UAA inbounds, but a potential game-tying three from Allen rimmed out. NNU then fouled UAA on consecutive possessions, and both times the Seawolves gifted the Nighthawks another chance as they missed the front end of one-and-ones both times.
 
After the second miss with 10 seconds to play, NNU went for a quick two with a Gabe Murphy layup to cut the deficit to one, 64-63, with just three seconds left. Allen then came up with another steal off a UAA inbounds pass, and the Nighthawks called a timeout with just 0.4 on the clock. Having to get a shot off in just a few tenths of a second, a desperation heave was off the mark, and UAA held on for the win.
 
It was a tale of two halves for the Nighthawks' offense, as they went from shooting 62% from the field and 75% from deep in the first half to 32.2% overall and just 12.5% from three in the second.
 
NNU had six players score between seven and 12 points, with Gabe Murphy at 12, Christian Rose at 11, Tru Allen at 10, Aaron Murphy at 9, Biggie Bergersen at 8, and Nathan Perez at 7.
 
Rose led the team with eight rebounds, while Gabe Murphy and Allen each had six boards. Allen and Jaylen Fox also had three steals apiece.
 
With his ten points on the night, Tru Allen eclipsed the 1,000-point mark for his collegiate career, with the senior from Lapwai's scoring total now at 1,001.
 
As mentioned, Northwest Nazarene will now have to wait to see if their season resumé is good enough to earn an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament. The selections are set to be announced on NCAA.com at 9:00 p.m. Mountain time this Sunday, March 10^th.
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