BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Northwest Nazarene men's basketball held off a comeback attempt by a red-hot Western Washington squad on Saturday night, never trailing before securing an 86-83 victory over the Vikings.
The Nighthawks finish the regular season with a 13-5 GNAC record, grabbing second place in the final conference standings for the third time in the last four seasons. NNU is also 20-6 overall, their best record since joining Division II in 2001 and only the second time they have reached the 20-win mark in that time frame.
With the two-seed and first round bye in the upcoming GNAC Championships secured, the Nighthawks now await the winner of the 3/6 matchup between Seattle Pacific and Alaska Fairbanks. The game is scheduled for noon Pacific time on Friday, March 7 in Lacey, Washington.
NNU started hot with Biggie Bergersen and
Sullivan Menard draining back-to-back triples to make it 6-0 early. Another Biggie three made it 9-2 at the 17:17 mark, and then a
Kye Dickson triple brought the score to 12-6 with 15:38 to play in the half.
The Vikings quickly tied things up at 12, but NNU retook the lead and would keep it around four to six points for most of the rest of the half. The Nighthawks were up by seven with 4:58 to play, but finished the half on a 9-0 run to go into the break up 44-28.
NNU led by as much as 19 early in the second half, but the Vikings started chipping away after that and cut the deficit to four, 62-58, with 9:31 to play.
The Nighthawks stopped the bleeding momentarily, but WWU would come all the way back to tie the game at 72 with 3:46 remaining.
Free throws from
Yaru Harvey and
Briggs Ranstrom put NNU back up by three, but with two minutes left the Vikings tied the game again with a triple to make it 77-77. Ranstrom and Dickson countered with layups to push the Nighthawks back ahead by four with just 1:17 to go.
NNU was able to convert from the free throw line after that, including a pair of clutch foul shots from Harvey to make it a three-point game with 14 seconds left. A last-second triple from WWU clanged off the rim, giving NNU the 86-83 win.
The Nighthawks shot 57% from the field and 40% from deep in the game.
Dickson led NNU with 29 points, followed by Biggie Bergersen with 21 points and five assists.
Harvey had 15 points, while Ranstrom stuffed the stat sheet with eight points, seven rebounds, a career-high seven assists, three steals, and four blocks. Ranstrom led the Nighthawks on the night in all of those categories other than points.
As mentioned, the Nighthawks will now await the winner of 3-seed SPU and 6-seed UAF in the GNAC semifinals next Friday, March 7 at 12:00 p.m. Pacific in Lacey.
