Monday, December 13, 2021

PORTLAND, Ore. – Ask any Nampa, Idaho resident which game they’ll have circled on their calendar at the start of any sports season and chances are Northwest Nazarene and College of Idaho will be the two teams competing.

The two schools, separated by 20 minutes, compete biannually in the Mayor’s Cup. The Nighthawks took the first leg on the road by an 80-70 score. Since then, however, College of Idaho had won five of six on their way to an 8-3 record and a No. 15 NAIA national ranking.

Behind 19 points from George Reidy and a double-double from Gabriel Murphy, the Nighthawks defended their home court with a 71-64 victory to sweep the Yotes for the first since 2012. The significant victory earned NNU selection as the GNAC Team of the Week.

“The oldest rivalry in the state of Idaho is always a fun one for us,” head coach Paul Rush said. “Our guys showed tremendous toughness in being able to lock in.”

The Yotes jumped out to a 12-4 lead by hitting their first four three-point attempts of the game, but NNU got back in the game and eventually controlled the game by moving the ball inside and getting to the free-throw line.

Northwest Nazarene had good ball movement all night, leading to several uncontested dunks in the paint. Reidy, a sophomore guard from Edmonds, Washington, took over in the second half, scoring 15 of his 19 after halftime to erase what was a one-point College of Idaho lead going into the break by driving the lane and drawing contact or pulling up in the midrange.

Murphy notched his fifth double-double of the season with 10 points and 11 rebounds. He did it efficiently, shooting 4-for-6 from the field and 2-for-2 from the line. Murphy also blocked three shots, contributing to a 7-1 Nighthawks advantage in that category. Freshman guard Julian Agosto finished with 11 points, shooting 3 of 4 from downtown. Point guard Tru Allen dished out five assists and came away with two steals.

Northwest Nazarene shot 43 percent from the field to the Yotes’ 34 percent while defensively the Nighthawks weathered C of I’s three-point firestorm, as the visitors fired 25 three-point attempts. The Yotes made 50 percent of their threes in the first half, but that number dropped to 38 percent in the second half.

The Nighthawks ended with 23 free-throw attempts to the Yotes’ 13. They sank 17 of them, including their last six attempts down the stretch when the Yotes had to play the foul game to try to rally.

After the final buzzer sounded, Reidy hoisted the Mayor’s Cup trophy to the cheers of an announced crowd of 2,154 as much of the student section spilled onto the floor and joined the team at center court to celebrate.

The Nighthawks have shown a propensity to play close games. Coincidentally, NNU’s first two GNAC encounters both went to overtime and ended 68-67, with the Nighthawks defeating Montana State Billings before narrowly falling to preseason conference favorites Seattle Pacific. Looking ahead, the battle-tested Nighthawks play Western New Mexico twice in Nampa on December 18 and 20 before resuming conference play on December 30.

“We are definitely moving in the right direction as a team and are continuing to pour into each other and find what it is going to take for us to be successful on the court,” Rush said.