ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The last time the Northwest Nazarene University women's basketball team lost they went on a 13-game winning streak.

The Nighthawks have to hope something similar happens after Friday.

The NNU women's team lost 76-69 to Montana State Billings in the semifinals of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference tournament at Alaska Anchorage.

"I think we were tight," NNU head coach Steve Steele said. "We came out tight and we were never able to recover."

The Nighthawks (22-4) will now wait until Sunday night's NCAA tournament selection show to find out if they make the tournament, who they will play and where they will play. The selection show will be broadcast online at 8 p.m. MST.

"The last time we lost we went on a 13-game winning streak," said Steele of his team's 79-73 loss to Central Washington on January 9. "We learned something then and hopefully we learned something from this one."

NNU played well offensively Friday, shooting 45.1 percent from the field, 50 percent from behind the line and made 17-of-21 free throws. But the Nighthawks were not their usual aggressive selves on defense and they turned the ball over 21 times.

"We gave up way too many easy baskets and we didn't take care of the ball," Steele said. "We were not aggressive on the defensive end and we weren't smart with the ball because we were tight."

The Nighthawks trailed by as many as 10 in the second half, but Avery Albrecht provided a big spark in the third quarter going on a personal 10-2 run.

Trailing 55-45, Albrecht made three free throws, a three-point play, a jumper and two more free throws to cut it to 57-55. Carly Parker then made two free throws to tie the game.

"Avery is a pretty special player," Steele said. "Our girls did a good job of getting her the ball and she was really aggressive at that point. She gave us a real nice spark and helped us close the gap. She had a great second half."

The Nighthawks eventually took a 62-61 lead early in the fourth quarter on a Danielle Jardine layup. It was NNU's first lead since 32-30 in the first half.
Jardine tied the game again at 64-64, but things went south from there.

NNU scored just three points in the final 5 minutes of the game – a 3-pointer by McKenna Walker with 13 seconds left – and couldn't get the breaks they needed to complete the late rally.

 "This team hadn't been in tournament play before," Steele said. "Those external things were new to us. I don't think the game itself was the issue, just general tightness.

"Inexperience was a big factor in how we came out and started the first half especially."

After a slow start, NNU used a 7-0 run to take a 32-26 lead and seemed to have righted the ship. But the Yellowjackets (21-11) then went on a 16-1 run to take an eight-point lead into halftime.

Danielle Jardine scored a team-high 17 points and grabbed seven rebounds, while Walker added 15 points and three assists. Albrecht scored 10 points and Raquel Jardine had nine points and four rebounds. Leading scorer Lexi Tubbs struggled to find her shot, finishing with seven points. She did grab four rebounds and dished out three assists.

Marina Valles played for the first time in seven games, she only had two points but grabbed six rebounds.

Alisha Breen scored a game-high 27 points to lead MSU Billings, which will play the winner of Alaska Anchorage and Seattle Pacific at 9:30 p.m. MST on Saturday in the conference championship game.

"It is hard to beat a really good team three times," Steele said. "They have the (GNAC) player of the year, they have a very well coached team and I think we just came out tight."