BURNABY, B.C. – Northwest Nazarene men's basketball gritted out a tough win on the road at Simon Fraser on Thursday night, holding off the Red Leafs 69-68.
With the win, the Nighthawks improve to 19-6 overall and 12-5 in GNAC play. NNU remains second in the conference standings with one game left in the regular season, now just one game back of Central Washington after the Wildcats lost to Western Washington tonight.
With an NNU win over WWU and a CWU loss to Simon Fraser on Saturday, the Nighthawks would earn a share of the GNAC regular season title. Either way, NNU will try to keep hold of at least second place to receive a first-round bye in the conference tournament.
SFU jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in tonight's contest, but NNU scored the next eight points to go up 8-4 on a
Kye Dickson jumper at the 16:04 mark.
The Nighthawks' lead grew to five after a Biggie Bergersen and-one made it 11-6 just over a minute later, but the Red Leafs rallied to tie the game at 13 with 12:10 remaining.
NNU responded with an 11-4 run, taking a 24-17 lead on an
Easton Reagan triple at the 6:27 mark. SFU countered with a 12-5 run over the next three minutes to tie things back up at 29 apiece.
The Nighthawks would not give up the lead, though, as a late Dickson three sent NNU into halftime up by three, 36-33.
Biggie Bergersen put NNU up six with a triple right after the break, but SFU fought back once again with a 17-7 run to take their first lead since the first minute, 52-48, with 13:43 to play.
The Nighthawks quickly tied things back up at 52, and the teams would trade the lead back and forth multiple times over the next 10 minutes. Neither squad took an advantage of more than two over the stretch, ending finally when a
Briggs Ranstrom free throw put NNU up 69-66 with 1:22 remaining.
NNU didn't get another shot off in the game with a pair of turnovers on their final two possessions, but Simon Fraser was only able to manage two free throws in the final 82 seconds. The Red Leafs had the ball down one with 21 seconds to play, but the Nighthawks stepped up with an incredible defensive effort to force an off-balance three at the buzzer that missed the rim entirely.
The Nighthawks pulled out the gritty win despite shooting just 17.6% (3-17) from beyond the arc and only making 14 of 21 free throws. NNU dominated the boards, though, with a 41-24 advantage including 13 on the offensive end.
While the three-point line wasn't working for NNU,
Kye Dickson excelled at getting to the rim, finishing with 27 points on 12-18 shooting. He added 10 rebounds for his ninth double-double of the season, along with two steals and three blocks.
Easton Reagan was next with 13 points, followed by Biggie Bergersen with 10 points and five boards. Ranstrom finished with seven points, nine rebounds, and four assists.
As mentioned, NNU's final game of the regular season will be against Western Washington on Saturday, played on the road at WWU's Carver Gym with tip-off scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Pacific. After that, it's off to Lacey, Washington for the GNAC Tournament from March 6-8.
