HOUGHTON, NY – Graduate student Jordan Haggard poured in 20 points to lead the Nazareth University Men's Basketball team to an Empire 8 Tournament bye with an 80-69 victory over Houghton University Saturday afternoon.

With one game remaining on the schedule, Nazareth (18-6 overall, 14-1 Empire 8) cannot fall below second place in the final standings and will have a bye in the six-team tournament to the semifinal round. Utica has one loss as well but has three conference contests remaining.

On Saturday, Haggard scored 13 points in the first half to help the Golden Flyers build an early lead as he drained three 3-pointers in a key run to lift Nazareth to a 14-point lead with 14 minutes remaining in the opening half.

Houghton (6-17, 4-10 Empire 8) battled back and trimmed the early lead to six points at 37-31 with 2:45 left in the half.

Sophomore Tyler Putney came into the game at the next stoppage and buried three consecutive 3-pointers in a row to regain a big lead as Nazareth jumped ahead by 15 points at 46-31 and the Golden Flyers took a 48-33 lead into the break.

The teams played back-and-forth for a majority of the second half as Nazareth maintained a comfortable lead. Haggard took a pass from fellow graduate student Logan Blankenberg and hit a driving layup to extend the lead to 20 points at 75-55 with 5:43 left.

A 3-pointer by sophomore Jaylen Savage improved the lead to 23 points two minutes later.

The Highlanders scored the final 12 points of the game for the final score.

Haggard led five players into double-digit scoring with his 20 points while Savage added 16, Blankenberg chipped in 15 while junior Luke Insley and Putney added 11 points each. Blankenberg and Haggard had eight rebounds each and Insley added seven assists without committing a turnover on the day.

Nazareth will close out the regular season next Saturday at 4 p.m. at St. John Fisher in the second round of the Battle of the Beaks series.