HASTINGS, Neb. -- In a battle of two of the hottest teams in Great Plains Athletic Conference men's basketball, Nebraska Wesleyan upset #18 Hastings College 115-109 on Wednesday night at Lynn Farrell Arena in Hastings.

NWU improves to 10-3 overall and now sits alone in 2nd place in the league standings with a 6-2 record.  It is their best start to conference play since the GPAC began in 2001.  Hastings has their five-game winning streak snapped and falls to 11-5 overall and 5-3 in GPAC play.  It was the sixth straight time that NWU has defeated Hastings at Lynn Farrell Arena in regular season play.

The Prairie Wolves were on fire from long range once again as they finished with 21 3-pointers.  NWU led by six points at halftime but got off to a terrific start to begin the 2nd half.

Over the first five minutes of the second half, NWU went on a 17-6 run to build up a double digit advantage.  They led by as many as 19 points at one point of the second half with an 80-61 advantage.

Hastings continued to chip away and got to as close as four points late.  The Broncos scored 21 points in the final 1:21 of the game as they drove the lane for easy layups and knocked down 3-pointers.  Each team scored 61 points in the second half.

It was another huge night for Trey Bardsley as he recorded his first double-double of the year.  Bardsley finished with 36 points and 11 assists.  The nation's leader in 3-point field goals, he was 6-10 from beyond the arc.

Hometown hero Nick Stine came big for NWU as he returned back to his hometown of Hastings.  Stine tied his career-high with 19 points as he made 6-8 from 3-point range.

Four players finished in double figures for NWU as Travis Giesselmann scored 19 and Max Cook added 13.

As a team, NWU shot 51.5 percent from the floor and 53.8 percent from long range. 

Hastings was led by Connor Musiel who scored 23 points, many of them came in the final minute.  The Broncos shot 46 percent from the floor and were 7-24 from long range after hitting 1-11 in the first half.

NWU will look to continue their hot streak on Saturday as they travel to face Dordt College.