A spectacular game by UAA's backcourt was spoiled in the final minutes Saturday, as Northwest Nazarene rallied for a 100-93 Great Northwest Athletic Conference overtime men's basketball win over the Seawolves in Nampa, Idaho.
Travis Thompson scored a game-high 33 points and Derrick Fain added 32 for UAA, which blew a six-point lead with two minutes to go and was outscored by seven in the overtime period.
Alex Birketoft scored 29 points for Northwest Nazarene, which improved to 12-14 overall and 10-6 in the GNAC.
The loss dropped UAA into a tie with Northwest Nazarene for fourth place in the GNAC. Both teams trail 11-5 Seattle Pacific by a game for second place, which is important because the top two teams in the conference receive byes in the six-team GNAC tournament. UAA has already clinched a postseason berth.
UAA (14-12, 10-6) came out on fire against the Crusaders, building a 24-14 lead midway through the first half behind a barrage of 3-pointers from Thompson and Fain, who each nailed a trio of triples in the first 10 minutes of the game. Both players finished with seven 3-pointers in the game. Thompson's seven 3-pointers gave him 295 for his career, making him the most prolific outside shooter in conference history.
Brian McGill scored eight points and dished six assists for UAA, which also got six rebounds from Travis Parrish.
But Northwest Nazarene battled back behind junior forward Kevin Rima, a Hutchison High grad from Fairbanks who delivered eight first-half points to help his team cut the lead to 40-38 at intermission.
Rima finished with 19 points and 10 boards for the Crusaders.
Thompson was nearly perfect in the first half, leading all scorers with 15 points by going 6-for-6 from the foul line and hitting three of his four field goal attempts.
Thompson's hot night continued to start the second half, where the senior from Anchorage nailed two more threes inside the first five minutes to put his team up by eight. But Northwest Nazarene responded with a 17-7 run, building a 61-56 lead with under 10 minutes left.
UAA fought back behind a torrid streak from Fain, a senior transfer from The Master's College who scored 11 straight UAA points to help the Seawolves take a 79-73 lead with three minutes to go.
Birketoft shot his squad right back into the game, knocking down back-to-back threes to tie it at 79-79 with 41 seconds left. Thompson's drive on UAA's next possession made it 81-79, leaving Northwest Nazarene to call timeout with 28 ticks on the clock.
The Crusaders again called Birketoft's number, and he delivered a step-back jumper that found nothing but net. Boomer Blossom's jumper with less than five seconds left bounced off the front of the rim, and UAA was unable to get another shot to the rim as the game headed into overtime.
Northwest Nazarene opened the extra frame on a 9-4 run, but Thompson cut the lead to 93-90 with a deep trey at the one-minute mark. That was as close as UAA would get, as Northwest Nazarene went 7-of-8 from the foul line in the closing seconds to ice the game.
The loss was the third in a row for the Seawolves and left UAA 0-2 on its Pacific Northwest road trip. The Seawolves also fell 80-67 to Central Washington on Thursday.
UAA is in action next week for a two-game homestand to close out the GNAC regular season. The Seawolves host first-place Western Oregon (21-4, 13-2) on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the Alaska Airlines Center, followed by the regular season finale on Saturday at 3:15 p.m. against eighth-place Saint Martin's (6-19, 3-12).