BELLINGHAM, Wash. – The Northwest Nazarene women's basketball team lost 68-67 in overtime Thursday to Western Oregon in the first round of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships.
Western Oregon made the game-winning basket with just five seconds left and with no timeouts remaining, the Nighthawks were not able to get a shot off as the buzzer sounded.
Despite the loss, NNU's season may not be over. In the most recent regional rankings, the Nighthawks were ranked seventh. The top eight teams advance to the NCAA Division II national tournament with the field being announced Sunday.
"We don't know if we have another game and I told the girls to tell each other everything they would if this was the end of the season," NNU coach Steve Steele said. "If we get another game, we are not going to take it for granted. It is a hard situation unfortunately."
In overtime, Allie Hueckman made a layup with eight seconds remaining to put the Nighthawks on top 67-66. The Wolves called timeout and Danyell Booker made a layup for the game-winner.
Booker's free throw with three seconds left in regulation tied the game before NNU freshman Claire Fischer missed a jumper that would have won the game.
"I feel like we can learn from this game," Steele said. "If we rebound, we can overcome the foul trouble and the free-throw disparity. We have to follow the defensive gameplan in the first quarter.
"I'd rather lose this way than getting blown out – I don't know if you learn the same lessons if you get blown out."
The game started slowly for the Nighthawks on Thursday, as they allowed 23 first-quarter points and Kendall Clark was whistled for two fouls in the first few minutes. She ended up sitting the rest of the half.
Led by Hueckman and Rylie Edlefsen, plus the defensive effort of Fischer, the Nighthawks stabilized and kept the Wolves in check.
Hueckman scored a team-high 17 points and grabbed five rebounds, while Clark finished with 15 points and five rebounds. Fischer set a tournament record with nine blocked shots, shattering the previous mark of four. She added seven rebounds, while Edlefsen had nine points – all in the first half.
Overall, the Nighthawks forced 16 turnovers and held the Wolves to just 33.8-percent shooting from the field (24-of-71), but offensive rebounds and free throws were the difference.
Western Oregon shot 15 more free throws than NNU and outrebounded the Nighthawks 46-34 including 19-7 on the offensive glass. Coming into Thursday's game, NNU was 15-0 when they held an opponent to under 40 percent shooting from the field.
"I feel proud of this group. They improved tremendously throughout the season," Steele said. "We beat every team in the GNAC. We beat Central on their court on senior night and we beat Western Washington (the top seed). We played nine games without Kendall (Clark) and Chloe Deharo (preseason all-conference) only played the first seven games of the season.
"If you would have told me we wouldn't have those two kids for that many games and we still end up 17-10 and in the hunt for a regional bid, I'd say we overperformed."
Now, the Nighthawks hope they get one more game.
