MONMOUTH, Ore. – Northwest Nazarene men's basketball cruised to victory at Western Oregon on Thursday night, flying past the Wolves 84-60.
The Nighthawks improve to 7-1 in GNAC play and 14-2 overall. With Central Washington's loss at Saint Martin's, NNU takes sole possession of first place in the GNAC heading into a huge matchup with the Saints on Saturday.
After Western Oregon opened the scoring with a jumper,
Sullivan Menard put NNU in front with three straight triples that made it 9-2 at the 17:22 mark. The Nighthawks kept rolling, opening up a 21-8 lead on an
Easton Reagan layup with 12 minutes to go in the first half.
The Wolves cut the deficit to six later in the half, but the Nighthawks closed the opening period on a 13-2 run. A pair of free throws from
Kye Dickson in the final minute sent NNU to the break up 42-25.
Nine unanswered points early in the second half grew NNU's lead to 20, 50-30, with 15:20 left. The Nighthawks cruised from there, eventually taking the 24-point victory.
NNU shot just 22% (4-18) from deep, but made up for that by going 26-37 (70%) from inside the arc and an impressive 20-21 (95.2%) from the free throw line. The Nighthawks also dominated the boards by a 39-20 margin.
Six Nighthawks were in double figures, led by
Kye Dickson's double-double of 17 points and 12 rebounds.
Sullivan Menard and
Yaru Harvey each had 14, combining to go a perfect 13-13 from the free throw line.
Easton Reagan added 13 points off the bench, while Biggie Bergersen and
Zane Foster each had 10. Reagan also had seven rebounds, while Bergersen also chipped in six assists, five boards, and four steals.
As mentioned, NNU has a huge conference tilt set for Saturday in Lacey, Washington, taking on Saint Martin's (17-4, 6-2 GNAC) at 5:15 p.m. Pacific.
