NAMPA, Idaho - Northwest Nazarene men's basketball took home a win in Thursday's GNAC opener at Western Washington, as despite the Vikings best efforts to climb back into the game, the Nighthawks came out on top with a final score of 101-92.
With the win, the Nighthawks move to a 6-1 overall record and a 1-0 record in GNAC play as the Vikings fall to 3-6 on the season.
Tonight's game was the first time that NNU has scored 100 points in a contest since a 110-77 win over Evergreen State on Nov. 12, 2022. The last time that the Nighthawks eclipsed the 100-point mark in a GNAC match was on Feb. 16, 2019, a 104-74 victory over Alaska Fairbanks in Nampa.
Easton Reagan continued his blistering hot start to the 2025-26 campaign, pouring in a career-high 34 points. The redshirt junior went 11-16 from the floor and a perfect 12-12 from the free throw line. The 34-point output is the highest for a Nighthawk since Obi Megwa also registered 34 in that same game against Alaska Fairbanks in 2019.
Through seven contests, Reagan is leading the GNAC with 23.9 points per game.
Both teams had struggles early on, as after the first five minutes of play, the score was locked at 8-8. However, coming out of the media timeout, the Vikings were able to go on a 12-4 run as they took the biggest lead of the game so far at 20-12, forcing Coach Hawkins to call a timeout.
After the timeout, the Nighthawks came out hot as they went on a 10 point run over two minutes, coming from
Jaden Byers and
Easton Reagan, taking the lead right back from WWU. The two teams would then exchange buckets back and forth over the next five minutes of play.
At the 5:11 mark, Reagan knocked down two free throws to give NNU a 31-29 point lead. The Nighthawks took a 44-36 lead into halftime, with
Michael Day converting a bucket at the buzzer.
Reagan came out of halftime with a hot hand, as he scored seven of NNU's first 13 points.
Nathan Perez also came out of half ready to go as he got a couple of buckets, going on to tie his career high in points with 14 points.
However, WWU was not about to go down quietly. Trailing by nine at the 13:50 mark, the Vikings went on a 27-15 run to take the lead back from the Nighthawks, 77-76, with 5:32 left in the game. During this cold streak, NNU's 15 points only came from 3 players, with just Byers, Reagan, and Day able to put the ball in the bucket.
But the NNU men weren't finished. At the 5:10 mark, Byers started them off with a three point play off an and-one. That was followed by five straight points from the free throw line by Perez, helping to build the Nighthawk lead back up to five.
From there, the Nighthawks were able to ride out the remaining time on the clock and convert from the free throw line to secure the victory.
Jaden Byers also had a day filled with multiple new DII career bests, scoring 23 points with 8 shots made and an impressive 80% mark from the field.
As a team, the Nighthawks were incredible from the charity stripe, going 33-37 for an 89.2% clip. NNU also shot nearly 60% from the floor at 58.2% (32-55), including 28-39 (72%) from two-point range.
The NNU squad looks to continue their hot start to the season as they head to Burnaby, B.C. to take on Simon Fraser. The Red Leafs, who will enter the game with a 4-5 record, are coming off a big win Thursday as they took down preseason GNAC favorite Central Washington. The Nighthawks and Red Leafs will tip off in the West Gym this Saturday at 7pm Pacific Time.
