NAMPA, Idaho – The last thing the Northwest Nazarene University women's basketball team wanted to do was head into the Christmas break with a loss.
Early on, it looked like that might be the case.

But then the Nighthawks dialed up the defensive pressure and erased an early deficit to roll to an 85-59 victory against Concordia on Tuesday in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference game.

"It would've stunk to have gone home with a loss and have to think about that," NNU's Lexi Tubbs said. "I think that was in the back of our minds. As much we want to go home and are excited about that, we wanted to go home with a win."

Concordia jumped out to 8-0 and 11-4 leads early on, but Tubbs hit three first-quarter 3-pointers and the Nighthawks pressure started forcing lots of turnovers to help the team rally.

"We preached hard that this was a potential trap game after a long break," NNU coach Steve Steele said. "Everyone just has a that big letdown after finals being over and getting ready to go home for Christmas. So we just had to be mentally prepared for that.

"It was really important for us to get this win."

The Nighthawks (6-2, 2-1 GNAC) outscored Concordia 49-37 in the second half to blow the game open. NNU forced 20 turnovers, scoring 31 points off those mistakes by the Cavaliers (6-4, 1-2).

"We knew they were going to come back and go hard on us," Valles said of the second half. "We just had to keep strong and know they would be more physical. I think we did that."

Valles was one of four players in double figures, finishing with 15 points and three assists. Tubbs had 16 points, seven rebounds and four assists, while Raquel Jardine added 11 points and five rebounds, McKenna Walker had 10 points and four rebounds and Coco Gall had seven points and seven rebounds.

"We changed a little bit with the way we guard them," Tubbs said. "We have our guards up not our posts, so we are able to just jump on their backs completely and that changed things. Our defense gives energy to our offense – it makes all the shots fall when we are playing defense well."

The Nighthawks used an 11-2 run over the final two minutes of the third quarter and the start of the fourth.

Valles started the run with a pair of free throws, Gall hit a 3-pointer, Tubbs and Walker added jumpers and Gall closed it with a pair of free throws.

"It was really important before Christmas (to get the win)," Valles said. "We wanted to win so we can be more happy – it was a really big win."

NNU is off until December 30 when the Nighthawks host Western Oregon at 2 p.m.