LACEY, Wash. – Northwest Nazarene men's basketball fell victim to a furious Saint Martin's comeback on Saturday, as the Saints erased a 15-point second-half deficit to knock off the Nighthawks 58-54.
The Nighthawks fall to 14-3 overall and 7-2 in GNAC play, dropping down into a three-way tie with Saint Martin's and Central Washington for first place in the conference.
Both teams came out firing, each making four threes in the first six minutes of action. At the 12:06 mark,
Easton Reagan gave the Nighthawks their first lead, 18-16 with NNU's fifth three-pointer.
NNU went on a small run later in the period, with back-to-back buckets from
Zane Foster and
Yaru Harvey extending the lead to 28-22 with 5:37 to go in the half.
With 1:50 remaining,
Kye Dickson converted what ended up being a four-point play. He was fouled on a made layup and made the free throw, along with an additional free throw after a technical foul was called on the Saints to push NNU's lead to nine at 33-24.
SMU was able to score once before halftime, cutting the lead to 33-26 heading into the break.
The Saints scored first in the second half to cut the margin to five, but NNU then went on a 12-2 run to open up a fifteen-point lead, 45-30, at the 14:22 mark.
Briggs Ranstrom had six of the 12 points in the run.
The Nighthawks went cold over the next five minutes though, and the Saints took advantage with a 16-2 run that cut the advantage to just one point, 47-46, with 9:14 remaining.
Ray Bergersen stopped the bleeding with a big triple to put NNU back up four. The Nighthawks managed to keep the lead all the way to the 1:49 mark, when SMU's Jaden Nielsen-Skinner tied the game at 54-54 with a three.
After an NNU turnover, the Saints took a 56-54 lead with a bucket with 1:25 remaining. After another turnover and a missed three for the Nighthawks, SMU made two free throws to go up four with 11 seconds remaining. That would prove to be enough as the home team earned the comeback victory.
After making six threes in the opening half, the Nighthawks went just 1-12 from beyond the arc in the second period.
Kye Dickson had 17 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Nighthawks with his fifth double-double of the season.
Briggs Ranstrom was next with nine points, followed by Biggie Bergersen with eight.
Yaru Harvey dished out six assists, and Biggie added four assists and two steals for NNU.
The Nighthawks remain on the road for just one game next week, visiting Central Washington in another battle of top GNAC teams, with the opening tip set for 4:00 p.m. Pacific on Saturday, Feb. 1 in Ellensburg.
