The UAA men’s basketball team lost its second straight conference game and its fourth in six games Saturday in Nampa, Idaho.
The Seawolves struggled to hit shots in the 80-69 Great Northwest Athletic Conference loss to Northwest Nazarene. They shot 36.5% from the field, two nights after connecting on 31.6% in a 34-point loss to Central Washington.
Northwest Nazarene shot much better, hitting 52.9% for the game and 63.6% in the second half, when the Nighthawks outscored the Seawolves 43-34.
“They were able to shoot the ball at a much higher percentage than usual and hold off all our runs,” UAA coach Rusty Osborne said in a release from the school. “We gave good physical effort but were not very sharp mentally.”
UAA (11-8 overall, 4-4 GNAC) was within two points with six minutes left to play, 64-62, but the Nighthawks outscored them 12-2 over the next five minutes to seize control.
Niko Bevens led UAA with 14 points on 4-of-7 shooting and Jack Macdonald and Oggie Pantovic came off the bench for 12 and 11 points, respectively. Macdonald hit 5 of 10 shots and Pantovic sank 4 of 7, but the rest of the team was a combined 10 of 39.
The Nighthawks (7-6, 4-4) got 26 points from Jayden Bezzant, 21 from Ezekiel Alley and 16 from Adalberto Diaz. Bezzant and Alley both drilled four 3-pointers, and Alley grabbed seven rebounds to help his team to a 35-32 rebounding edge.
The game came on the third day of an eight-day stretch that will see Seawolves fly 8,000 miles and drive 14 hours to play four games in four states and three time zones.
They started with a Thursday game in Ellensburg, Washington, and drove to Nampa from there. They return to Anchorage for a Tuesday night game at the Alaska Airlines Center against UAF and then head to Montana for a Thursday game against MSU-Billings.
“We are in the midst of one of the most challenging 8 days in all of collegiate basketball,” Osborne said.