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• VIDEO: SENIOR NIGHT CEREMONY

SEATTLE – Jayden Bezzant scored 27 points Saturday to help Northwest Nazarene spoil Seattle Pacific's Senior Night with a 67-56 men's basketball win at Brougham Pavilion in the final regular-season game for both teams.
 
The Nighthawks (13-13) finished their season with a 9-11 Great Northwest Athletic Conference record that included a sweep of SPU. They were 103-91 victors in the first meeting, on Nov. 30 in Nampa, Idaho.
 
Despite the loss, the Falcons (16-11) will keep playing as they qualified for the GNAC Tournament that will take place March 1-3 in Anchorage, Alaska. They finished with an 11-9 league ledger to earn the No. 4 seed.
 
"If anything, this group has shown that they respond. We weren't at our best tonight, but we have a group that believes in each other," said second-year SPU coach Grant Leep. "They believe in what we're doing and how we're doing it. We're going to respond and be better from this.
 
"With a big week of preparation coming up we'll find out a lot in Monday's practice about the resolve that this team has."
 
SPU will meet No. 5 seed Alaska Anchorage, the tournament host, on Thursday at 3:15 Pacific Time. The winner advances to a semifinal matchup with top-seeded Western Oregon on Friday at 3:15 p.m. The championship game is slated for Saturday at 6:15 p.m.
 
GNAC Tournament tickets are available for advance purchase by visiting gnachooptickets.com.


 
A trio of 3-pointers early in the second half Thursday, the third coming from Gavin Long, brought SPU within 40-39 with 14:46 left to play.
 
After a miss and offensive rebound, the visitors nailed their next five shots to ignite a 16-2 spree that produced a 56-41 advantage with 6:46 remaining. NNU scored six straight points and, after a layup by SPU's Gabe Colosimo, tacked on 10 unanswered points.
 
The Falcons missed seven shots and committed two turnovers during that second surge.
 
Colosimo's basket produced the only points for SPU during an 8-minute, 49-second dry spell. He ended the drought at 5:57 with a 3-pointer directly off an inbounds pass from under the basket.
 
The fourth trey of the game by Colosimo, with 3:08 showing on the clock, closed the deficit to 58-52, but SPU would get no closer.
 
"He's such a competitor and he gives us exactly what we need," Leep said of his sophomore point guard. "As Gabe develops as a player he's just starting to feel a little bit more in tune to what's going on and game flow. If we need a guy to make a three, he can do it. If we need a guy to get into the paint to set somebody else up, he can do it.
 
"We're really proud of Gabe's progress and where he's at and we're going to need him to continue to play at a high level."
 
Colosimo finished with 20 points on 8-for-16 efficiency from the floor. He drained four of SPU's seven 3-pointers in nine attempts beyond the arc. Long added 12 points for the Falcons, who were limited to 35-percent shooting (20 of 58).
 
Bezzant hit 11 of 16 shots and was 5-for-7 from the free throw line. Joining him in double-figures for the Nighthawks were Olamilekan Adetunji and Maurice Jones with 11 points apiece.

 

EJ Poulsen, a five-year team member, drew his first start as a Falcon. He was honored in a Senior Night ceremony prior to tip-off, along with teammate Hunter Eisenhower, as Saturday was the final home game of their careers.
 
A 6-foot-9 center, Poulsen scored three minutes into the contest to put his team ahead 4-2. That proved to be the largest SPU lead of the night.
 
Northwest Nazarene tallied the next six points to capture a lead they would never relinquish.
 
"We're all a little bit disappointed, especially for our two seniors, Hunter and EJ, that that was the effort that they got sent out on," Leep said. "But we do have to keep in mind that we get to continue on our season and this wasn't our final game.
 
"We usually have a much better rhythm and flow to us on offense and we were just flat tonight. I don't know if there really is any other way to put it, we were just flat."
 
Eisenhower shared team-high rebound honors with a career-high five for the Falcons.
 
Later in the first half, SPU sent up seven straight errant shots, enabling NNU to build a 27-20 lead.
 
Nate Streufert's free throw with 5.3 seconds left in the period set the halftime score at 31-26 in favor of the Nighthawks.
 
Bezzant tallied 10 of his team's final 14 points before intermission.
 
"We knew that if he sees a couple go in early he becomes a different player," Leep described. "Even when he banked a couple in that really got him going and into a rhythm then he started finding some easy ones and getting some great rim attacks where he was able to get to the basket and finish. Bezzant was able to get in a nice flow there and he became very difficult for us to stop."
 
The hosts made just 34 percent of their first-half shots (11 of 32), including 2 of 12 treys. NNU countered with 45-percent accuracy (14 of 31).
 
 
NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
 
Northwest Nazarene 67, at Seattle Pacific 56
 
NORTHWEST NAZARENE (13-13, 9-11 GNAC)
Adetunji 5-7 1-3 11, Jones 4-13 2-2 11, Megwa 1-6 0-2 2, Roth 1-4 2-2 4, Bezzant 11-16 5-7 27, Garcia 3-4 0-1 6, Lopevic 1-3 0-0 3, Brink 1-1 0-0 2, White 0-2 1-2 1, Ferguson 0-0 0-0 0, Franks 0-0 0-0 0, Thompson 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 27-57 11-19 67.
 
SEATTLE PACIFIC (16-11, 11-9 GNAC)
Wooten 1-4 1-3 4, Eisenhower 0-8 0-0 0, Poulsen 1-3 0-0 2, Colosimo 8-16 0-1 20, Long 4-10 2-2 12, Lizotte 2-6 3-4 7, Cavell 3-6 0-0 6, Streufert 1-3 3-4 5, Miller 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 20-58 9-14 56.
 
Northwest Nazarene............   31   36  -   67
Seattle Pacific...............   26   30  -   56
 
3-point goals--NNU 2-15 (Lopevic 1-3, Jones 1-7, Roth 0-1, Megwa 0-1, Thompson 0-1, Bezzant 0-2), SPU 7-28 (Colosimo 4-9, Long 2-4, Wooten 1-1, Streufert 0-1, Miller 0-1, Eisenhower 0-7, NNU-None, SPU-None. Rebounds--NNU 36 (Roth 11), SPU 33 (Streufert, Eisenhower, Cavell 5).
Assists--NNU 10 (Megwa 4), SPU 9 (Lizotte, Long 2). Total fouls--NNU 15, SPU 16. Technical fouls--NNU-None, SPU-None. A-854
 
 
Next SPU Men's Basketball Game
GNAC Tournament quarterfinal
(#4) Seattle Pacific at (#5) Alaska Anchorage
Thursday, March 1, 3:15 p.m. PST
Alaska Airlines Center / Anchorage, Ak.