NAMPA, Idaho – Northwest Nazarene men's basketball held off a pesky Cal State Los Angeles squad on Friday night, winning their opening game of the NNU Thanksgiving Classic 79-75.
The Nighthawks improve to 4-1 on the season and 3-0 at home in the Johnson Sports Center.
NNU started very strong, with an
Easton Reagan triple, Reagan layup, and
Briggs Ranstrom dunk opening up a 7-0 lead after two minutes.
The run continued, with the Nighthawks going up 26-11 at the 11:24 mark of the opening half. During those first eight and a half minutes, NNU went 10-17 from the field and 6-10 from deep, with seven different Nighthawks scoring led by eight from Reagan.
The Golden Eagles came alive over the next three minutes, however, scoring 13 unanswered points to cut the deficit to just two, 26-24, with 6:53 to go before the half. NNU stopped the bleeding, keeping hold of the lead and going into the break up 39-36.
Cal State LA opened the second half with a 7-2 run, though, taking their first lead of the game of 43-41 at the 18:07 mark. The Nighthawks went back up by six, 51-45 on an
RJ Chatman triple at the 14:47 mark, but once again the Golden Eagles rallied to tie the game at 53 apiece with 13:01 to play.
NNU kept pushing, taking back the lead and eventually going up by seven, 69-62, with just under seven minutes remaining. The Golden Eagles cut the deficit down to one a couple of times before the final buzzer, but
Parker Martens made a pair of clutch free throws to extend the lead back to four in the final seconds and preserve the victory.
Reagan had another fantastic game, continuing his very strong start to the year with a 26-point, eight-rebound effort, going 10-15 from the floor and 3-5 from deep. The redshirt junior is averaging 21.6 points and 6.8 rebounds through the first five contests of the season.
Martens was also solid, scoring 20 points with four triples, and also pulling down eight rebounds.
Jaden Byers added 14 points, while
Garrett Hawkes chipped in 10 boards.
The Nighthawks will now take on Oklahoma Christian on Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. in the final game of the Thanksgiving tournament.
