Tuesday, January 22, 2019

PORTLAND – After tallying a 102-75 victory over Montana State Billings on Saturday for its 16th consecutive victory to start the season, the Northwest Nazarene women's basketball team moved up one spot to No. 1 in the D2SIDA Women's Basketball Media Poll. 

The Nighthawks are off to a perfect 16-0 start to the season, a stretch that includes an 84-68 win over No. 15 Alaska Anchorage. All but one of the team's victories this year have come by at least double digits. 

Head coach Steve Steele's team advanced to the NCAA West Regional last season and were eliminated in a two-point loss to No. 4 seed Alaska Anchorage. 

Northwest Nazarene has now won its last 29 regular season contests, a streak that stretches back to December of 2017. The program has been a mainstay at the top of the conference standings in recent history, finishing the 2017-18 campaign as co-regular season champions.

The team is led this year by guard Avery Albrecht, who is averaging 12.6 points through 16 games. She is followed closely by senior Ellie Logan, who has tallied 12.2 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. 

An explosive offensive attack has NNU at the top of both the national rankings and multiple statistical categories as well. They rank third in Division II in points per game (87.9) and margin of victory (24.3).

Also released Tuesday was the Women's Basketball Coaches Assosciation Poll, which has the club ranked No. 3 nationally.

The Nighthawks will be back in action this week beginning with a Thursday night trip to Bellingham to face Western Washington. Tip-off is set for 5:15 p.m. (PST) at Carver Gym.