BURNABY, B.C. – Northwest Nazarene men's basketball used a late run to pull away from Simon Fraser for an 84-73 victory on Saturday night.
The Nighthawks improve to 2-0 in GNAC play through the opening weekend and 7-1 on the season.
The Red Leafs led for a lot of the early going, including an eight-point advantage with a 22-14 lead at the 8:23 mark of the first half. Back-to-back threes from
Michael Day and
RJ Chatman along with a
Kyelin King and-one resulted in a 9-0 run for NNU, however, as the visitors took a 23-22 lead with 5:55 to go.
SFU would bounce back, though, going into halftime up four, 38-34.
The second half started tight, but the Red Leafs eventually pulled ahead by nine, 57-48, at the 10:32 mark. The lead remained at eight, 62-54, with 8:47 to go, but that was where the momentum swung completely in the Nighthawks' favor.
Over the next four minutes, NNU went on an 18-2 run to flip that SFU's eight point lead all the way around to an eight point NNU advantage. King had the last two buckets of the run, getting a dunk on the break after a
Briggs Ranstrom steal and then turning over SFU himself and cruising in for a layup that made it 72-64 with just under five minutes to play.
SFU cut the deficit back down to three with 2:54 left, but a
Garrett Hawkes layup and great free throw shooting down the stretch preserved the Nighthawks victory.
Jaden Byers led NNU with 17 points, seven rebounds, and three assists.
Easton Reagan had 15 points, followed by Day and King with 11 apiece and Hawkes with 10.
Ranstrom also had a game-high six steals, contributing to 15 total steals for NNU and 21 total turnovers for the Red Leafs.
NNU improves their record to 25-4 all-time against Simon Fraser, including a current 11-game winning streak and taking 18 of the last 19 contests.
The Nighthawks will now have three non-conference games before the holiday break, starting with home games against Northwest Indian College on Friday, Dec. 12 and Western New Mexico on Monday, Dec. 15. NNU then travels to Adams State on Friday, Dec. 19 to wrap up the 2025 portion of the schedule.
