SEATTLE, Wash. – The Northwest Nazarene women's basketball team is very young, that has been well established.

On Thursday, though, they played like a veteran team.

The Nighthawks won their sixth consecutive game, defeating Seattle Pacific 77-55 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action.

"I challenged them to be mature," NNU coach Steve Steele said. "Knowing that (Seattle Pacific) was not in the tournament and that we knew our seed, we were either going to get better or get worse tonight. So, I told them to go out there and play like it means something. I'm proud of them for that."

NNU (21-6 overall, 16-3 GNAC) has already locked up the No. 2 seed to next week's GNAC tournament at Seattle Pacific, while the Falcons have already been eliminated from competition.

That gave Thursday's contest the feeling of a trap game.

"We did a good job of being patient on the offensive side and getting stops and turning them over," Steele said. "The offense kept getting easier and easier as we trusted that our defense would keep us in the game."

Freshman Nicole Gall sparked the Nighthawks in the first quarter, scoring seven points off the bench.

Senior Avery Albrecht then took over in the second quarter, scoring eight consecutive points and 11 of 13 during a 13-1 run that blew the game open.

NNU held Seattle Pacific to just 24 first-half points and 39.5 percent shooting for the game. The Falcons committed 31 turnovers to just 14 for the Nighthawks.

"This was one of the first times we didn't let the offensive frustrations cause problems on the defensive side of the ball," Steele said. "That showed a lot of maturity also."

NNU's 21 wins is the third most for the program since moving up to the NCAA in 2001 and marks just the fifth time in that span they've won at least 20 games. It is the third consecutive season under Steele that the Nighthawks have won at least 21 games.

Albrecht finished with a game-high 23 points and eight rebounds, while Marina Valles had 16 points. Gall finished with 11, while McKenna Emerson had four points and five steals and Clare Eubanks had five points, four rebounds and four steals.

The Nighthawks close out the regular season at 4:15 p.m. MST on Saturday at Saint Martin's.

Madi Hingston's 16 points led Seattle Pacific (8-19, 6-13).