BELLINGHAM, Wash. – For the fifth consecutive year, the Northwest Nazarene women's basketball team is headed to the postseason.

Avery Albrecht had a monster double-double and the Nighthawks avenged an earlier loss to Western Washington with a hard-fought 79-72 victory Thursday in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action. The loss was the first at home this season for Western Washington.

Albrecht finished with 26 points, 11 rebounds, three assists and three steals to lead the Nighthawks, who won the conference tournament a year ago.

"She led on both sides of the floor," NNU coach Steve Steele said. "She had a great night, obviously."

Alaska Anchorage also clinched a playoff spot Thursday, while the Nighthawks are in second place all alone after Central Washington upset Simon Fraser.

NNU led 67-59 with 3 minutes, 21 seconds left before Western Washington went on a 9-2 run in just over a minute to pull within 69-68 with 2:08 left.

But McKenna Emerson hit a runner as the shot clock expired and then Albrecht drained a 3-pointer for a 74-68 lead. After a Vikings basket, NNU made five of six free throws down the stretch to seal the win.

"We talked a lot this week about the invisible stats – the screens, communication, denying easy passes and I think we did a really good job of that all night," Steele said. "Look at Erin (Jenkins), she didn't have a great shooting night but was +23 in the plus-minus standings. She was doing a lot of things to make her team better."

Western defeated NNU 94-83 in Nampa earlier this season, dominating inside all night long. The Vikings outscored the Nighthawks 62-32 in the paint that night.

On Thursday, NNU (17-6 overall, 12-3 GNAC) had adjustments to handle the inside presence of the Vikings and they executed throughout.

"Their posts killed us last game and we made some good adjustments to suit our style of play," Steele said. "We had to defend them in numbers and make it hard to get it into the post and we did a better job of that tonight."

NNU outscored Western Washington 34-26 in the paint this time and outrebounded the Vikings 16-10 on the offensive glass.

Marina Valles finished with 12 points, Nicole Gall had 12, Jenkins had eight points and five rebounds, Emerson had eight points and six steals and Emma Clark had six rebounds.

Emma Duff's 18 points and 10 rebounds led the Vikings (16-7, 10-5).

NNU will play at Simon Fraser at 8 p.m. MST on Saturday in another big matchup.