Burnaby, BC – It was a tale of two halves for the Simon Fraser University men's basketball team, who fought their way to a 92-88 victory over Northwest Nazarene in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play Thursday night.

Watch the action-packed game here On-Demand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9NAs-sIgRk.

Roderick Evans-Taylor had 23 points and six steals in the match, while Sango Niang went 4-for-7 from three-point range, scoring 22 points on the night for SFU.

"We talked about the 'X' factor going into this game," said head coach James Blake. "There are guys who take shots, and there are guys who make shots. Our guys, Rod and Sango in particular, really made shots tonight."

NNU's Kevin Rima opened the scoring with an early lay-in, as the visitors took control of the game quickly into the first half.

Trailing by a game-high 16 points with 6:03 remaining the Clan's shooters started the find their groove as consecutive three-pointers by Justin Cole and JJ Pankratz brought the team back into contention at 42-32.

The momentum kept rolling as Pankratz then hit his third trey of the night, followed by bomb by Niang and a dunk from Evans-Taylor as the home side brought the game within six points, trailing only 50-44 at the half.

"It was not a great first half, especially as we were outrebounded 27-5 which is not a stat you want to see," Blake continued. "We made some adjustments to our pressure and implemented some change-ups on defence to throw off the opposition."

At the start of the second half the Clan took a pair of points before the opening whistle, as a miscommunication between NNU starters resulted in a technical foul, the resulting free-throws taken by Niang.

Then two back-to-back treys by Cole followed by a dunk in the paint propelled Simon Fraser to their largest lead of the game, taking the reins at 60-52.

It wasn't smooth sailing until the end however, as the Crusaders fought their way back, capitalizing on a pair of Clan turnovers near the nine-minute mark, forcing a series of tie-scores.

At 88-up, an Alex Birketoft technical foul sent Niang to the free-throw line again and the captain made no mistake, giving the Clan a much needed two-point advantage with 33-seconds remaining in the game.

The Crusaders took a pair of fouls to end the game as Niang and Evans-Taylor each put one home from the charity stripe to secure the Clan's 92-88 victory.

"The coaching staff noticed a few weeks ago that the team's mentality was all about the playoffs," Blake finished. "The guys were playing tight and were feeling the pressure so as a team we took a different approach to these last few games and are leaving it all out there."

With the win the Clan improve to 5-9 in GNAC play, and 10-12 overall, while NNU falls to 8-5 in conference play.

For the first time in program history the Clan are in contention for a playoff position as the sixth and final spot will come down to Simon Fraser and Western Washington, who currently hold that position with a 7-7 conference record.

Simon Fraser is back in action this Saturday, February 14 as the host Central Washington at 7:00 p.m. in the West Gym. The game will be the final home performance from seniors Sango Niang, Justin Cole and Daniel Deflorimonte.

The three men will be honoured in a post-game ceremony, which will be available for streaming on ClanTV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KylhKSkzr0w.