BURNABY, B.C. – The Northwest Nazarene women's basketball team lost for the first time this season Saturday, falling 76-73 to Simon Fraser in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action.

The Clan hit a 3-pointer with 21 seconds left to take the lead and a desperation 3-pointer by NNU rimmed off.

The loss ends a perfect 17-0 start for NNU which had risen to No. 1 in the country in the D2SIDA poll this week and No. 3 in the WBCA poll.

"There are a lot of tears, but I think I see a lot of resolve in this locker room," NNU coach Steve Steele said. "We are going to get better for it."

Simon Fraser outscored NNU 24-12 in the fourth quarter, using a 16-0 run to turn a 63-55 deficit into a 71-63 lead with 4 minutes left in the game.

The Nighthawks (17-1 overall, 9-1 GNAC) didn't give up, though, eventually tying the game on a Danielle Jardine layup with 47 seconds remaining.

"I'm proud we got it back to what it was," Steele said. "There are just so many good teams in our league. They had a great game and executed what they wanted better than we executed what we wanted."

Simon Fraser shot 38 3-pointers, making 14 and also dominated on the offensive glass (16-8). NNU also missed nine free throws on the night.

"We knew they wanted to shoot 40 3s. Even if you don't make a high percentage, you still get a lot of points off of them," Steele said. "We did not do a good job of making them adjust to us. They made us adjust to them – so credit to them for that."

The Nighthawks end the first half of conference play tied atop the standings with Alaska Anchorage, while Simon Fraser is just two games back.

Raquel Jardine finished with 14 points, Marina Valles had 11, May Rodgers had 11, McKenna Walker had 10, Ellie Logan had eight and Avery Albrecht had seven.

"They got hot at the right time," Steele said. "Part of that was getting open and making plays and part of that was we weren't rebounding or communicating. We have to do a better job."

Jessica Jones' 20 points led Simon Fraser (11-6, 7-3).

The Nighthawks return home at 7 p.m. Thursday against Western Oregon.