ROCKLIN, Calif. – Northwest Nazarene men's basketball suffered a tough defeat at the hands of Cal Poly Humboldt on Friday night, making a late comeback but falling just short by a final score of 65-64.
NNU moves to 2-1 on the year.
Jaden Byers got the scoring started with a layup one minute into the action, but Humboldt responded with seven unanswered to go up 7-2 at the 15:21 mark.
The Lumberjacks still led 17-16 with 8:20 to go in the opening half, but a three from
Parker Martens gave NNU the lead for the first time since the opening minutes. After the teams were tied at 23 at the 4:35 mark, the Nighthawks went on a 9-2 run to take a 32-25 lead with 2:31 to go.
The lead stayed at seven going into halftime, with
Garrett Hawkes making a pair of free throws in the final minute to send NNU to the break up 36-29.
Briggs Ranstrom put the Nighthawks up nine with a layup to start the second half, but Humboldt would go on a 16-4 run over the next seven minutes to take a 45-40 lead at the 12:17 mark.
The Lumberjacks grew their lead to eight, 56-48, with just under seven minutes to play. NNU went on a quick 10-2 run over the next two and half minutes, though, cutting the Humboldt lead to two.
NNU kept chipping away, finally cutting the deficit all the way down to one, 65-64, on a pair of free throws from Byers with 40 seconds left. The Nighthawks forced a missed shot on the defensive end and had a chance to hit a game-winner, but
Easton Reagan's last-second attempt was off the mark.
Byers and Reagan both had 20 points to lead the Nighthawks, with Reagan also grabbing six rebounds. The duo scored nearly two-thirds of NNU's 64 points, with the next highest players being
Parker Martens and
Garrett Hawkes each with six.
In contrast to great three-pointing shooting in their two wins to open the season, the Nighthawks went just 4-19 (21%) from deep in the game. NNU also got outrebounded 42-29, including 12-5 on the offensive end.
NNU will look to turn things around on Saturday, taking on Cal State Monterey Bay at 5:00 p.m. Pacific in Jessup's Warrior Arena.
