Box Score NAMPA, Idaho – The word of the day for the Northwest Nazarene women's basketball team certainly could have been revenge.

Instead, it was fun.

The Nighthawks certainly looked to be having a lot of it while they avenged their only loss of the season Thursday, defeating Simon Fraser 84-61 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action.

"I can't describe how it feels – this game was just so fun to play in," junior Avery Albrecht said. "McKenna (Walker) said before the game today that we should just have fun.

"If you look at how we shared the ball it was just effortless. The ball was getting passed around so much."

NNU (24-1 overall, 16-1 GNAC) finished with 21 assists, including nine by point guard Marina Valles. Simon Fraser defeated NNU 76-73 on Jan. 26 on a late 3-pointer. Since then, the Nighthawks have won seven games in a row.

"We just knew inside that we wanted to beat them," Walker said. "We know we are the better team and we knew we had to take care of business."

The 23-point win felt even better considering how close the Nighthawks played their most recent two games. NNU defeated Montana State Billings 92-86 last week and Central Washington 65-56 on Monday.

"Tonight felt like Nighthawk basketball; like our original team," Albrecht said. "I think it was a good way to get some confidence back into our game and into our offense and defense."

NNU remains tied for first place with Alaska Anchorage and is No. 2 in the first NCAA West Region poll which decides what teams advance to the national tournament. The Nighthawks clinched a bye in the conference tournament scheduled for March 7-9 with Thursday's win.

They had to beat an unorthodox team in Simon Fraser to do it.

The Clan (16-8, 12-5) have very little post presence and shoot lots and lots of 3-pointers. Because of that defenses have to stay disciplined and rebound well to keep Simon Fraser to one shot per possession.

"They turn offensive rebounds into three points quite often," NNU coach Steve Steele said. "It's unnatural playing against them because on defense you are used to getting back to defend the paint, but you can't do that against these guys because they aren't running to the paint. You have to stay disciplined and communicate."

NNU did that throughout as Simon Fraser shot just 27.7 percent from the field for the game, including 9-of-37 from beyond the 3-point line.

Walker finished with a career-high 14 rebounds as NNU outrebounded Simon Fraser 49-32.

"This year it's been a focus to crash the boards super hard," Walker said. "There was more of an opportunity tonight because they weren't really boxing me out."

Danielle Jardine scored a game-high 15 points, while Raquel Jardine had 13 points and six rebounds. Walker finished with 10 points to go with her 14 rebounds, while Albrecht and Maya Rodgers added eight points each.

NNU hosts Western Washington at 7 p.m. Saturday in its final regular-season home game of the season. Seniors Carly Parker, the Jardine twins, Walker, Ellie Logan and student director of basketball operations Kaylana Quach will be honored before the game.