Men's Basketball Heads to San Diego for NCAA Regional

3/12/2025 9:00:00 AM | By: Josh Burkholder - Assistant AD, Communications

SAN DIEGO – With their third NCAA Championships berth in the last five seasons in hand, Northwest Nazarene men's basketball is preparing to take on Cal State Dominguez Hills in the opening round of the West Regional on Friday afternoon.

The seven-seed Nighthawks (20-7, 13-5 GNAC) will take on the CCAA Champion and two-seed Toros (25-5, 20-2 CCAA) at 2:30 p.m. Pacific on Friday, March 14 at Point Loma's Golden Gymnasium in San Diego.

The other matchups in the opening round on Friday in the West Regional are three-seed Chico State (24-6, 19-3 CCAA) against six-seed Central Washington (21-9, 14-4 GNAC) at noon, one-seed Point Loma (27-5, 18-2 PacWest) against eight-seed Seattle Pacific (18-14, 11-7 GNAC) at 5:00 p.m., and four-seed Biola (22-8, 16-4 PacWest) against five-seed Cal State San Bernardino (22-11, 14-8 CCAA) at 7:30 p.m.

If the Nighthawks are to defeat CSUDH, NNU will then take on the winner of three-seed Chico State and six-seed Central Washington in the semifinals on Saturday night at 5:00 p.m. Pacific. The championship game is scheduled for Monday evening at 7:00 p.m. Pacific.

Media and Ticket Info
Live video will be available free of charge on Point Loma's video streaming portal. Live stats are housed on PLNU's Sidearm Stats page. There is also a Tournament Central page with all the info and links you will need ahead of the regional.

Tickets go on sale Wednesday morning at 9:00 a.m. Pacific and are available at this link. Pricing structure is as follows: Adults/Youth/Senior - $12 (Seat Back) or $8 (Bleacher Seating); College Students w/ID - $5; Children 3 & Under - Free. Tickets are on a day-by-day basis, so one ticket purchase is valid for all games on the day it is purchased for.

How They Got Here
NNU earned an at-large bid with an impressive season resumé. The Nighthawks started the season as hot as could be, winning 11 of their first 12 games including their first four GNAC contests. One of those four was what turned out to be a big victory over Central Washington in overtime on Jan. 4, one of just four conference losses for the Wildcats. Alaska Fairbanks gave NNU their first conference loss on the road Jan. 11, but NNU responded with three more wins to go to 7-1 in GNAC play on Jan. 23.

The Nighthawks struggled on the road to close out the conference slate, falling in four straight road games from Jan. 25 to Feb. 15. NNU turned things around from there, though, winning their last four of the regular season including an impressive road victory over Western Washington in the final game on March 1.

Despite a tough loss to Seattle Pacific in the GNAC Semifinal on Friday, NNU's season was still strong enough to pick up the berth into the NCAA postseason as the seven seed.

NCAA Tournament History
The Nighthawks will be making their third appearance in the NCAA DII Championships. NNU earned an at-large bid in the COVID-shortened 2021 season, entering as the five-seed into the combined West/South Central Regional. They defeated four-seed Point Loma as well as top seed and national No. 1 Colorado Mesa to reach the Sweet 16 before falling to two-seed Colorado Mines.

Two season ago in 2023, NNU won the GNAC tournament title for the first time and earned the conference's automatic bid to the West Regional. The Nighthawks took on top-seed and host Point Loma in the opening round, falling to the Sea Lions 78-64.

As a result, NNU enters the tournament 2-2 in their NCAA Tournament history.

Team Notes

NNU was picked third in the GNAC Preseason Coaches' Poll, improving on that prediction by one place in the final standings
20-7 overall record, just the second time since the school joined Division II in 2001 that the men's basketball program has won 20 games (went 20-8 in 2018-19)
Started the season 11-1, best start to the season in the program's DII history
14-1 overall record and 9-0 mark in conference play at home in the Johnson Sports Center, also best home records as a member of Division II
Finished second in the GNAC standings at 13-5, tied for best finish in program history (also finished second in 2023-24 and 2021-22)
Head coach Jon Hawkins is in his second season at the helm and has seen great success with a 37-17 overall record in the two years
NNU is fourth in the West Region with just 68.1 points allowed per game (34^th in DII)
The Nighthawks are tied for fifth in the region in rebound margin at +4.3, 10th in total rebounding at 36 per game, eighth in offensive rebounds at 11.33 per game
NNU is third in the region with 21.8 free throw attempts per game and fifth with 15.5 free throws made per game
NNU is sixth in the region with 4.0 blocks per game
The Nighthawks are tied for seventh in the region with 8.3 steals per game
NNU is fourth in the region with 11.3 turnovers per game, seventh with a +1.7 turnover margin, and ninth with a 1.19 assist-turnover ratio
NNU is 14-3 when they score more than 70 points this season, 6-4 when they are held under 70
NNU is 17-1 when they hold their opponent to 70 points or less, 3-6 when the opponent scores more than 70
NNU has never played Cal State Dominguez Hills in men's basketball. In NNU's Division II history (since 2001) against other teams in the regional, the Nighthawks are 3-5 against Point Loma, 1-2 against Chico State, 2-0 against Biola, never played Cal State San Bernadino, 18-33 against Central Washington, and 13-39 against Seattle Pacific
In matchups played this season against other teams in the regional, NNU is 3-3 (1-0 vs Biola, 1-1 vs Central Washington, 1-2 vs Seattle Pacific)
NNU went 8-6 this year against Division II teams with a winning record

Player Notes

Kye Dickson, a junior transfer from NC Central, leads the GNAC in scoring at 18.8 points per game
Dickson is just the second NNU player to ever lead the GNAC in scoring, with the other being Adonis Arms in 2018-19, who went on to start in multiple DI NCAA Tournaments for Winthrop and Texas Tech before spending the last few seasons in the G-League
Dickson was also named First Team All-GNAC and the conference's Newcomer of the Year (also NNU's second Newcomer of the Year, also Adonis Arms in 2018-19)
Dickson is the first NNU player to be named First Team All-GNAC since James Nelson in 2021-22
Dickson has scored in double figures in all but one game during the regular season, coming all the way back on Nov. 15 when he had just seven points in the win over Northern State
Dickson has scored over 20 points ten times this year, including a 31-point effort in the win over Biola on Dec. 20
Dickson has tallied nine double-doubles this year, tied for the third-most for an NNU player since joining DII, and most since Maurice Jones had 10 double-doubles in 2017-18
Dickson is also third in the GNAC with 8.1 rebounds per game and leads the conference with 137 made free throws
Biggie Bergersen is second on the team in scoring at 10.7 points per game and was named Honorable Mention All-GNAC
Bergersen is second in the GNAC with 1.9 steals per game, tied for 14^th with 2.9 assists per game, and third with a +2.9 assist-turnover ratio
Bergersen also leads the GNAC with 36.2 minutes played per contest
Yaru Harvey is third on the team with 10.6 points per game and was named the GNAC Defensive Player of the Year along with an Honorable Mention All-Conference nod
Harvey is the first NNU men's basketball player to earn the conference DPOY since joining the GNAC in 2001
Harvey is tied for fourth in the GNAC with 1.7 steals per game
Briggs Ranstrom is fourth on the team with 9.1 points per game and also earned Honorable Mention All-Conference honors
Ranstrom is tied for 13^th in the GNAC with 5.8 rebounds per game and 12^th with a 51.2 field goal percentage
Sullivan Menard is fifth on the team in scoring with 8.8 points per game and has the most three-pointers made with 50
Easton Reagan contributes 7.0 points per game in 18.2 minutes per game off the bench
Seven-footer Zane Foster chips in 5.5 points and 4.7 rebounds per game, while also ranking second in the GNAC with 1.2 blocks per game
Dickson, Biggie Bergersen, Harvey, and Menard have started all 27 games for NNU, with Ranstrom also starting 25 of the 27. The only games that NNU didn't have that same starting five were the two in Alaska in January when Foster replaced Ranstrom in the lineup

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