UAA men’s basketball team loses 4th straight game

UAA’s push to earn a spot in the conference tournament hit some resistance Thursday night in Nampa, Idaho.

The Seawolves, one of four men’s basketball teams battling for the final two playoff spots in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, lost their fourth straight game, falling 87-77 to Northwest Nazarene.

The GNAC’s top six teams will advance to the conference tournament March 7-9 at Western Washington University. The league’s top four teams all look like locks for tournament berths.

With five conference games left, the Seawolves (12-11 overall, 7-8 GNAC) are tied for fifth place with Montana State-Billings, an 83-60 winner over Simon Fraser on Thursday. Western Washington is half a game back at 6-8 and Simon Fraser is one game back at 6-9. The Seawolves will play all three of those teams before the end of the regular season, and all of the games will be on their home court at the Alaska Airlines Center.

UAA made a run at Northwest Nazarene late in the game, but couldn’t overcome a 22-point deficit.

Adonis Arms and Obi Megwa put on a shooting clinic for the second-place Nighthawks (17-4, 12-3). They shot a combined 60 percent (18 of 30) and each finished with 23 points. As a team, Northwest Nazarene was 32 of 60 (53.3 percent).

UAA hit 25 of 54 shots (46.3 percent) and put four players in double figures. Tyler Brimhall led the way with 19 points, Freshman guard Tobin Karlberg scored a career-high 14 points and Niko Bevens and Brian Pearson each dropped in 11. Pearson added game-highs of seven rebounds and three blocks.

Arms added seven rebounds to help Northwest Nazarene outrebound UAA 37-27. He also handed out a game-high six assists and had three of his team’s 13 steals.

Eight out of 10 players gave away the ball at least once for UAA, which was hurt by 21 turnovers.

The Seawolves play their final regular-season road game Saturday at Central Washington.