NAMPA, Idaho – A great comeback just wasn't enough Thursday night.

The Northwest Nazarene women charged back to erase a 17-point, second-half deficit, only to see Seattle Pacific rally late to grab an 82-77, Great Northwest Athletic Conference road win at the Johnson Sports Center on the NNU campus Thursday night.

"Coming out in the second half, we came out and did exactly what we were suppose to do from the tip-off," NNU coach Ryan Brandon said of his team's second-half surge. "We came out with our original game plan and executed it to near perfection in the second half, and it showed."

Down 46-29 after a Suzanna Olsen layup, the Crusaders (10-5 overall, 3-4 GNAC) began their charge with a Megan Hingston bucket, closing to 46-41 back on a Chelsie Luke 3-pointer with 14 minutes, 47 seconds remaining in the game.

The Falcons (10-4, 3-3) hung on briefly, taking a 51-43 lead on a Katie Benson bucket, but the Crusaders continued their charge, tying the game 53-53 on Katie Swanson bucket with 11:31 to play, and completing a 29-7 run when Luke splashed another 3 with 8:46 on the game clock.

Up 58-53, NNU maintain the five-point lead into the fleeting moments until the Falcons slowly chipped away, eventually retaking the lead 69-68 on a Hannah Rodrigues bucket with 2:24 to go.

Ohlsen added a 3-point play for SPU, which maintained the lead the rest of the way, though the Crusaders did try and come back once again.

Another Luke 3 trimmed the margin to 77-75 with 25 second left before four straight free throws by Betsy Kingma iced the win.

"Seattle Pacific executed really well down the stretch in the last two minutes offensively and we were just a possession short adjusting to it," said Bragdon. "Other than that, I thought our execution in the second half couldn't be better."

Hingston led the second-half charge, scoring 18 of her game-high 30 in the final 20 minutes for NNU, while Luke added 15 points, Ellen Ferrenburg scored 10 points off the bench and Kyle Schierman had nine points and 10 rebounds for the Crusaders.

"It's good to have Meg back," Bragdon said of NNU's All-American, who scored 24 points combined in her previous three games.

"It's good to have Kylee back," NNU's coach added of Schierman, who two weekends ago suffered a sprained ankle.

"Chelsie really got in her groove in the second half, Ellen contributed off the bench, and Taylor (Simmons), from the point guard position, called as good of a game as a point guard can call, especially in the second half."

Simmons finished with four points, seven assists and three steals for NNU, which next hosts Montana State Billings on Saturday at 7 p.m.

Ohlsen and Kingman led the Falcons with 21 points apiece while Katie Benson added 14 points and nine rebounds.