MONMOUTH, Ore. – The Western Oregon men's basketball could not defend a first half lead on Thursday night, stumbling in the second half to fall 87-82 to the Northwest Nazarene Nighthawks at NPE Gym.

Thursday represented an important game for both sides. Sitting in a tie for fifth place in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference standings, a win represented a jump into a tie for third for the victor. Dropping the third of their last four games, Western Oregon (10-5, 4-5 GNAC) was unable to rise to the occasion despite shooting 46.3 percent from the field.

The Wolves led for a great majority of the game, jumping out to a lead early thanks to forcing 11 first-half turnovers and hitting seven 3-pointers. Northwest Nazarene (8-6, 5-4 GNAC) started the game cold from deep, hitting 28.6 percent of 3s in the opening half.

Western went into the locker room leading 45-37, led by the 14 points of Jaylyn Richardson and 13 from Cameron Cranston. Richardson finished with a game-high 23 points, adding on five rebounds and an assist. Cranston hit the 20-point threshold for the fourth time this season and his second consecutive game, dropping 22 with six boards and a dime.

The second half opened seemingly the same way the first half played out with the Wolves controlling play and maintaining their lead close to 10 points. WOU led in double figures as late as the 11:32 mark of the second half at 68-58 before NNU began their push.

The Nighthawks went on 14-4 run to follow and tie it up with 5:13 left, the first time they had been back to even since early on in the first half. That was followed by a 9-0 rally just a few possessions later to jump their lead out to as many as eight.

In total, Western Oregon led for 33:22 of the 40-minute contest while Northwest Nazarene held the advantage for just 3:58 of play.

Trailing by five in the closing seconds with the ball, Western Oregon could not get a late 3-pointer to fall, draining off the last 24 seconds of play to be handed a costly conference loss.

Olamilekan Adetunji doubled his previous season-high, scoring a team-high 20 points for NNU, adding on 10 rebounds and three blocks for his double-double. Ezekiel Alley followed with 19 points, five rebounds and three assists off the bench. Northwest Nazarene got 30 points from their bench while Western Oregon secured just 11 from their reserves.

Emanuel Gant came painfully close to a five-by-five performance for Western, scoring eight points, grabbing five rebounds, five blocks, five steals and coming just short with four assists.

The loss was the first at home for WOU to NNU since 2016. It was additionally the most points allowed to them since 2013.

Next up, Western Oregon hosts Central Washington in the second game of a doubleheader Saturday, Jan. 25. The WOU women's team will open the day at 2 p.m. with the men to follow for a scheduled 4:15 p.m. PST tipoff at NPE Gym.