Northwest Nazarene’s Cami Knishka hit her fourth 3-pointer of the night to tie the game with 30 seconds left in regulation, then drained a jump shot with three seconds left in overtime to lift the Nighthawks to a 90-88 win over the University of Alaska Fairbanks on Thursday evening at Alaska Airlines Gymnasium.
UAF (4-9, 1-5 GNAC) rallied back from a dismal start — trailing 21-9 after one quarter — to hold a six-point lead at 74-68 with 1:19 to play.
That was when Knishka, a fifth-year junior guard from Cashmere, Washington, hit her third trey of the game to pull NNU within three at 74-71. Following a Sam Tolliver missed 3-pointer, NNU’s McKenna Castledine was fouled on a putback and hit the free throw to tie the game at 74 with 1:03 to play.
Tolliver gave the lead back to UAF on an old-fashioned three-point play with a layup and a free throw at the 52-second mark, preceding Knishka’s game-tying shot. The teams exchanged a free throw each in the final half-minute, with Clare Eubanks hitting one for NNU (8-7, 4-3 GNAC) with 11 seconds left and Tolliver hitting the back end of two with 7 seconds to play.
Emma Clark sparked the Nighthawks in the overtime period with two baskets sandwiching a steal to put NNU up 86-80 with 3:02 to play. UAF again fought back, tying the game on consecutive two-for-two trips to the line by Emma McKenney and Tolliver to make it 86-86 with 1:28 to go.
But Jordan Pinson converted a pair of free throws for the Nighthawks to retake the lead before Jayda Van Dyke again tied the game with a layup at the 20-second mark. Knishka again had the answer, this time with her 14th point of the night to give NNU the 90-88 win.
Emma McKenney’s career-high 31 points led the Nanooks, while Tolliver had 19 and Destiny Reimers added 14. Eubanks led the Nighthawks with 16 points.
UAF will be back in action Saturday afternoon at 3 o’clock against Central Washington. The game is military appreciation day, so all military members with a valid ID and their dependents can attend for free.
