NAMPA, Idaho – Northwest Nazarene men's basketball got their revenge on College of Idaho in round two of the 2025 United Heritage Mayors' Cup, running away from the Yotes in the second half for a 91-74 victory.
NNU improves to 2-0 on the year with the victory, avenging the 75-64 exhibition loss to College of Idaho last week.
The Nighthawks now hold a 58-45 advantage at home in Nampa in the rivalry, which now has 220 total games between Northwest Nazarene and College of Idaho in the last 92 years.
Easton Reagan had an incredible night for NNU, scoring a career-high 30 points to go with 10 rebounds for a double-double. He also had four assists and two steals, and shot 9-13 from the field and 10-11 from the free throw line.
Michael Day was next for NNU with 13 points, seven rebounds, three assists, and two blocks.
Garrett Hawkes chipped in 12 points and
Jaden Byers added 11.
Briggs Ranstrom also pulled down nine rebounds.
As a team, the Nighthawks only turned the ball over nine times and force 15 Yotes turnovers. NNU also assisted on 19 of 30 made shots, and went an impressive 23-26 (88.5%) from the free throw line.
College of Idaho came out strong and took an early 18-12 lead at the 10:29 mark of the first half. NNU responded with an 11-2 run over the next four minutes, with a
Michael Day layup making it 23-20 Nighthawks with 6:28 left.
The teams went back and forth for the rest of the half, before
Ethan Berninger was fouled on a made three-pointer and converted the four-point play to send NNU to the break up by three, 34-31.
NNU's offense came alive in the second half, growing the lead to double digits at the 14:30 mark when a triple from
RJ Chatman made it 49-37. Three minutes later, the lead hit 14 points when Reagan scored five points in less than 25 seconds, making a pair of free throws and then drilling a three-pointer to make it 58-44.
The Nighthawks would lead by as many as 21 before it was over, with the final stretch including a highlight-reel alley-oop from
Garrett Hawkes to
Michael Day. NNU tallied 57 points in the second half, the first time that they had scored more than 50 in one half since also hitting 57 in the second half against Evergreen State on November 12, 2022.
NNU looks to ride the momentum into a pair of neutral site games this weekend, traveling to Rocklin, California to take on Cal Poly Humboldt on Friday and Cal State Monterey Bay on Saturday.
