BELLINGHAM, Wash. – The Northwest Nazarene women's basketball team has never had much success at Western Washington.

On Thursday, though, the No. 1 Nighthawks earned a hard-fought 86-73 Great Northwest Athletic Conference victory to remain undefeated on the season.

"Western Washington is the most underrated team we've seen so far," NNU coach Steve Steele said. "They are long at every position; they are big and physical in the post; and they are extremely well coached. They are a well-oiled machine and they made it tough on us all night long."

Going into last season, Western had won 12 consecutive games against NNU. The Nighthawks swept the season series for the first time since 2008 and are halfway to doing so again this season.

"It was a big, big win," Steele said. "I haven't seen many teams better than them this season."

NNU started hot, jumping out to an 8-0 lead. The Nighthawks continued to surge throughout the first half, outscoring the Vikings 26-12 in the second quarter.

The Nighthawks (17-0 overall, 9-0 GNAC) shot 57.7 percent from the field in the first half and 13-of-20 from the line to take a 48-32 lead into the break.

"We started really well tonight," Steele said. "We have not been starting games well. We've been down five or six or seven points, but tonight we were up eight. We ended up needing that cushion."

The game ground to a halt in the fourth quarter as Western (10-7, 5-4) began pressing to try to get back into the game and kept sending NNU to the line.

The Nighthawks missed nine free throws in the second half and 16 in the game. They came in shooting better than 80 percent from the line on the season.

In the end, though, it was NNU's vaunted balance that won out.

No Nighthawks player took more than seven shots from the field. Avery Albrecht had 17 points and five rebounds while Ellie Logan had 17 points and 10 rebounds.

Marina Valles added 16 points and five assists, while McKenna Walker had nine points and six rebounds and Danielle Jardine had eight points.

It was the second closest margin of victory on the season for NNU. The closest for the Nighthawks was an 80-75 win against Colorado Christian in their third game of the year.

NNU heads to Simon Fraser at 6:15 p.m. MST on Saturday for another tough road test to wrap up the first half of conference play.