Box Score




NAMPA, Idaho — For 20 minutes things looked pretty good for the Crusaders as they battled basket-to-basket with the third-ranked team in the land.

With an upset on their mind, Northwest Nazarene's men's basketball team went toe-to-toe with No. 3 Western Oregon, even forging a 27-24 lead late in the opening half.

But a barrage of 3-pointers to open the second half ignited the Wolves offense and spoiled NNU's upset bid as Western Oregon notched a 75-53 win at the Johnson Sports Center in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action Saturday night.

"We really talked about coming out with a good start because we haven't in the last few games," NNU head men's basketball coach Scott Flemming said. "We were right there with them with a couple minutes left there in the first half and had a couple crucial turnovers."
 

Looking to hand the Wolves their third straight loss, NNU (4-6 overall, 0-4 GNAC) came out firing as a Joel Devastey bucket off a Mike Wright assist put the Crusaders on top 15-12 with 8 ½ minutes gone.

A battle for the next 12 minutes, NNU grabbed a 27-24 edge on a Bouna N'Diaye 3 with about 4 minutes until halftime before the Wolves made a strong surge headed to the locker room.

A 10-0 run by Western Oregon (10-2, 3-1) put them on the verge of breaking the game open, then back-to-back-to-back 3s from Jordan Wiley did just that, pushing a 36-30 margin to 45-30 in a two-minute stretch.

"It seemed like we had some good defensive possessions, but boy, when we made one mistake and left them open they nailed those 3s," Flemming said.

A Nikola Prvulj 3-ball cut the difference down to 47-39 for the Crusaders with 13 ½ minutes remaining, but a quartet of treys by Wolves decided the outcome with a little less than 10 minutes to play.

"The problem in the second half was we couldn't put the ball in the hole," Flemming added.

Devastey led the way for the Crusaders with 10 points in the contest, while N'Diaye added eight points and six rebounds for NNU, which is back in action quickly as the Crusaders look to bounce back when they host Central Washington on Tuesday night.