Saturday, March 4, 2023
BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Sophomore Ryzin Bergersen could not have come up with a bigger game at a bigger time.
Bergersen earned tournament Most Valuable Player honors after he scored a game-high 22 points, including 14 in the first half to key an 11-2 run to start the game as No. 6 seeded Northwest Nazarene beat No. 1 seeded Saint Martin’s, 65-57, to win the GNAC Men’s Basketball Championships at Carver Gym.
Bergersen was perfect in the first half and finished the night shooting 7 of 10 from the field and 6 of 7 from three-point range, leading the Nighthawks to their first GNAC championship. Sophomore Tru Allen finished with 11 points and seven rebounds and sophomore Christian Rose contributed 10 points and eight rebounds.
Junior Shakeem Alcindor led Saint Martin’s with 10 points and eight rebounds while junior Christian Haffner finished with 10 points and four rebounds.
With the win, Northwest Nazarene (15-14) receives the conference’s automatic berth to the NCAA Division II Men’s Basketball Championship. Saint Martin’s (24-6), which was ranked No. 4 in the NCAA Wesr Region Rankings entering the tournament, will wait to see if it is selected for an at-large berth. The Selection Show takes place Sunday at 8 p.m. (Pacific) online at NCAA.com.
Northwest Nazarene becomes the second-lowest seed to win the GNAC Championships. Only No. 10 Alaska, which won the 2022 tournament after all 10 teams qualified due to schedule complications related to the COVID-19 pandemic, has won as a lower seed.
The Nighthawks could do little wrong in the first three minutes, bolting out to an 11-2 thanks to eight points from Bergersen, including two three-pointers. Northwest Nazarene shot 66.7% from the field and 83.3% from three-point range over the first eight minutes of the half, opening up a 25-9 lead on Christian Rose’s jumper with 11:34 to go in the period. The Saints were equally as cold in that stretch, shooting just 21.4% from the field and going 0 for 7 from beyond the arc.
The Saints started finding their shooting touch in the middle minutes of the half and pulled back to within 31-16 on Kyle Greeley’s three-pointer at the 7:36 mark. But SMU could not pull any closer than 15 until late in the period when it went on a 5-1 run to close it out. Marcus Lenker’s lay-in with 51 seconds left allowed the Saints to pull within 37-25 at halftime.
Saint Martin’s found more of its shooting touch early in the second half, coming within 39-30 on Tyke Thompson’s lay-in less than two minutes in, but Gabriel Murphy scored three of the next eight points and his lay-up with 16:32 to go put the Nighthawks back up by 13 points, 45-32. The Saints kept pace until Bergersen struck again, connecting on his fifth three-pointer of the game and a technical free throw to put NNU up 52-37 with 11:15 left.
The Saints would not go away quietly and slowly cut the deficit to 59-50 on Christian Haffner’s three-pointer with 4:07 left and Branden Bunn made it a 60-53 game with his three-pointer with 1:37 to go. The NNU defense limited SMU to just one more field goal the rest of the way.