MONMOUTH, Ore. – Northwest Nazarene sophomore Erin Jenkins has had an emotional week.

The forward found out her grandfather, Lewis Vaughn Jenkins, passed away a week ago. She played a game that night and again Saturday, before driving to Rexburg, Idaho, for his funeral Tuesday.

She then drove back to Nampa to catch the team bus to Oregon for Thursday's game against Western Oregon.

Jenkins poured in a career-high 29 points to lead the Nighthawks to a 63-53 Great Northwest Athletic Conference victory.

"At the funeral, my cousin Garrett (Leatham) told me to score 30 for Grandpa," Jenkins said. "I was like, 'Yeah, OK.' Knowing that I scored that many and that I did it for him … it's a lot of emotion, but good emotion."

The Nighthawks (12-5 overall, 7-2 GNAC) outscored the Wolves 23-3 in the fourth quarter to erase a 10-point deficit and grab the victory.

To top it off, senior guard Avery Albrecht crossed the 1,000-point plateau with a layup in the final moments. Albrecht is the 28th player in program history to score that many points.

"She has had a tremendous, tremendous career," NNU coach Steve Steele said. "I'm not surprised, just more happy for her. She is just a great story of someone who keeps their head down and is humble and is a positive energy for everyone around her."

For Jenkins it was one of the rare games in her college career that her grandfather didn't watch. He often made the trek to southwest Idaho to watch her compete in home games and made sure to tune into road games whenever they were broadcast.

Jenkins scored 13 points in the fourth quarter alone, making two huge 3-pointers and drawing a charge in the middle of the Nighthawks' big run.

"I just wanted to play to the best of my ability," Jenkins said. "Last week when I found out, I had to get my head in the right spot and play for him because I knew he wouldn't want me to miss a practice or game.

"It was super hard, but once I got going I just played knowing that Grandpa was watching."

On Thursday other than Jenkins, the Nighthawks couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.

NNU missed its first 18 3-point attempts and was shooting less than 30-percent from the field after three quarters.

Thanks to stifling defense and strong rebounding, the offense kicked into high gear in the fourth quarter.

Western Oregon led 50-40 with less than nine minutes left.

Jenkins hit two free throws and a 3-pointer to make it 50-45 with 7:46 left. After a pair of free throws by the Wolves (5-11, 2-7), Jenkins made a layup and Marina Valles had two free throws to cut the deficit to 52-49 with 4:41 left.

Nicole Gall then had a steal and Jenkins hit another 3-pointer to tie the game with 4:12 remaining.

Valles then made a layup for NNU's first lead, Gall hit a jumper and Jenkins made a layup out of a timeout. Just like that it was 58-52 with 2:01 remaining.

"We didn't rebound well the first three quarters," Steele said. "We fixed the defense and finished with rebounds and then the offense came easier."

Jenkins finished 10-of-14 from the field, 3-of-5 from beyond the arc and 6-of-8 from the line. She added six rebounds. Valles had 14 points, four assists, three rebounds and three steals, while Albrecht had 12 points and seven rebounds.

"We did a good job of finding Erin early and getting her touches against their zone, especially in the first quarter and I think that gave her some confidence," Steele said. "She did a great job of recognizing what the defense was giving her and she had everything working tonight."

The Nighthawks finished just 3-of-26 from beyond the arc, but it was enough to grab the win.

"I think if we shot 25 times from half court we'd make more than one," Steele said when asked if his team could miss that many shots even if they tried. "It's is just one of those things. We didn't even take many bad shots they just didn't go in. I'm really proud of my team … they kept trusting in the process and figured it would eventually work out and it did."

The Nighthawks wrap up their Oregon trip at 5:15 p.m. MST on Saturday at Concordia.