Thursday, March 5, 2015
BILLINGS, Mont. - In a game in which neither team led by more than nine points, sixth-seed Northwest Nazarene outlasted third-seed Central Washington 79-73 in the opening game of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Men's Basketball Championships at Alterowitz Gymnasium Thursday.
Guard Mike Wright led the Crusaders with 20 points, four assists and three steals.
The win sends the Crusaders (14-15) into Friday's 5:15 p.m. semifinal game against second-seed Seattle Pacific. Central Washington finished its season with a record of 17-9, losing three teams to NNU.
Wright, who scored 15 of his points in the first half, was one of five players in double figures for NNU, which also got 17 points from Erik Kinney, 14 from Alex Birketoft, 13 from Matyas Hering and a 10-point, 10-rebound double from Kevin Rima.
Central Washington was led by Dom Williams with 29 points. Devin Matthews came off the bench to score 13 points and Joseph Stroud had 12.
After Wright kept NNU even at halftime with his big first period, Kinney, Birketoft and Hering did most of the damage in the second period.
Kinney scored 13 of his points after the break, while Birketoft produced 11 of his 14 in the second period and Hering had 10 of his 13 in the final 20 minutes. Hering didn't miss a shot all night, making three treys and four foul shots.
Neither team led by more than four points in the first 20 minutes and the contest remained tight in the early stages of the second period before NNU went on a a 10-2 run, capped off by a three-point play by Kinney to give the Crusaders a 52-45 lead with 13 1/2 minutes remaining.
Central Washington, however, countered scoring eight straight points to go ahead 55-54 with 9:27 left on a jump shot by Matthews. Wright answered with a layup and Hering hit one of his three treys as NNU took the lead for good.
A dunk by Kinney with 5:30 left stretched NNU's advantage to nine at 67-58, the high water mark for either team.
Five straight points by Williams got the Wildcats back to within four points with 4:30 left. Later the 'Cats climbed to within three at 74-71 with 32 seconds left on two foul shots by Matthews. But NNU then got two free throws by Kinney and two by Hering to effectively insure the victory.