By: Evan O'Kelly, Associate Commissioner for Communications

PORTLAND, Ore. – Recent success by the Northwest Nazarene women’s basketball team has come down to a simple philosophical principle that the program is built around.
 
“We want to make sure that other teams cannot say, ‘if we stop so-and-so, we will beat NNU,’” said Nighthawk head coach Steve Steele. “Teams having to try to stop everybody has always been our philosophy around here. On this team you may get 20 shots one night and then five the next. We have the kind of kids who buy into that, and that is what we saw last week.”
 
Northwest Nazarene upended Great Northwest Athletic Conference preseason favorite Western Washington 69-62 last Thursday, before taking down Simon Fraser 81-64 last Saturday for a pair of wins at home. The Nighthawks improved to 8-5 on the season with their third straight win and moved into the upper half of the GNAC standings at 3-2 in league play. NNU was selected as the Athletic Solutions GNAC Team of the Week on Monday.
 
Evidence of Steele’s philosophy can be found in many forms when unpacking what has led to NNU’s strong start to 2026. Perhaps best exemplifying this came in Saturday’s when, when the team’s season leading scorer had a game-high in assists while their leading assistor on the season contributed double figures in points.
 
Senior guard Trinidie Nichols averages a team-best 13.5 points per game, but on Saturday against the Red Leafs she was limited to a season-low three. That is in large part because she notched a season-high nine assists, helping facilitate the Nighthawk offense to its fourth 80-point performance of the season. “She has won everywhere she has been, so she brings great confidence which is important for your primary ball handler,” Steele said on Nichols, who had stops at Columbia Basin College and Montana Western previously. “Even though they held her scoring down on Saturday, she was still responsible for a lot of our points.”
 
Freshman point guard Kelly Garrity on the other hand produced her two highest scoring games of the season yet with 11 points against the Vikings and 10 against the Red Leafs. On the season Garrity ranks seventh in the conference with 3.3 assists per game. “Point guard is the hardest position to be as a freshman in the GNAC. Her learning curve has been really steep, and she is getting better every day,” Steele said on Garrity, who has played in all 13 games and has started nine. “We saw her shoot the ball with confidence in both games this week.”
 
Beyond Nichols’ and Garrity’s recent exemplification of the team’s dynamism, the Nighthawk lineup is also anchored by one of the top talents in the GNAC in junior forward Kendall Clark. The 2024 GNAC Freshman of the Year and a first-team all-conference pick last winter, Clark is fresh off a season-best 19-point, 14-rebound double-double in Saturday’s win over the Red Leafs. After missing the first six games of the campaign, she has quickly returned to form among the conference’s elites. “We were without her for 6-8 weeks, and she has only been on a couple of trips,” Steele said. “She has grown in many ways, in large part because she gets a different game plan thrown at her each week. I am proud of the way she has adjusted to what other teams try to do to her.”
 
Clark’s impact last week helped fuel two of NNU’s best offensive performances of the 2025-26 season. The Nighthawks had their two best shooting percentages of the year, making 30 of 63 shots (47.6%) against SFU and 22 of 47 shots (46.8%) against the Vikings. The win over WWU was highlighted by a 25-8 edge in the second quarter, which gave NNU a 42-24 lead at halftime. “When you play defense well, the offense automatically flows easier,” Steele said. “If WWU is able to set up their defense after a bucket, they are tough to play against. We went from being up 18 to them cutting the lead to four, but we didn’t panic. We just kept trying to do the right things on the defensive side. I was proud of the steadiness we showed and how we kept coming back to the game plan.”
 
After withstanding the Vikings’ comeback effort, NNU was able to topple the Red Leafs by out-scoring them in all four quarters and finishing particularly strong at 18-11 in the fourth. “One thing we did well was sharing the ball – you are going to shoot it better when you share the ball,” Steele said on the SFU game, in which his team had a season-best 23 assists while forcing 20 Red Leaf turnovers. “Getting stops and rebounds helped the offense flow better too. I am actually surprised when we don’t shoot the ball well, because we know we can shoot it. Shot selection is a big part of that.”
 
Senior guard Sadi Clemons has been another reliable force, joining Nichols as the only two Nighthawks to have started all 13 contests this season. Clemons’ statistical numbers don’t jump off the page, but her presence defensively and as an upperclassman is most noteworthy in her coach’s eyes. “She is one of our senior leaders, and the girls get excited when she makes plays,” Steele said. “She really set our defense up for success on Thursday, and she was amazing in that game. She has done a really good job this year of recognizing when the team needs her to make plays.”
 
Boise State transfer Allie Hueckman has found her stride since the calendar turned to 2026, delivering four consecutive double-digit performances including a season-high 27 in the Nighthawks’ win over Alaska on Jan. 3. That carried over into another successful week, as she had 11 points against the Vikings and 12 points against the Red Leafs to nudge her season average up to 8.5 points per game. “Allie is new to our program and she is starting to get comfortable,” Steele said on the 5-foot-10 guard. “As a coaching staff and as a team we have started to figure out how to use her best.”
 
Junior guard Beaux Bruegman has enjoyed her top offensive season yet in a Nighthawk uniform, averaging a career-best 6.1 points per game. She is fresh off matching her season best with 14 points against the Red Leafs, as she knocked down 6 of 8 field goals including a pair of threes in the team’s most recent triumph. “She has always been a good leader for us – it comes naturally,” Steele said on Bruegman. “She had a really good game Saturday and brought a lot of energy in the first half when we really needed it.”
 
In many ways, the Nighthawks feature the deepest roster in the conference. Eight different NNU players have seen action in every game of the season, a figure matched only by Western Washington. The Nighthawks also have 11 different players who are averaging 12.2 or more minutes per game, with only Alaska being able to claim that many players averaging double figures in minutes per game. Additionally, nine different Nighthawks have earned multiple starts across the first 13 contests of the season. “Almost everybody plays in every game,” Steele said. “We are fortunate to have a deep bench, and that is something we are proud of. All of those kids are coming in and making plays, whether they’re playing eight minutes or 15 minutes – everyone is contributing something. Some may not have played a whole lot last week but might play a lot more minutes next week.”
 
Steele’s words are far from hyperbole. In the win over WWU freshman forward Claire Fischer had a season-high five blocks and made 4 of 7 shots in 21 minutes and freshman guard Hadley Craig had six points, two blocks, two assists, a rebound and zero turnovers in 15 minutes. In the SFU game sophomore guard Rylie Edlefsen had four points and a season-high three boards in 12 minutes: Performances that appear minimal on their own, but when mixed into the full team dynamic prove invaluable towards NNU’s success.
 
“We just have a general toughness,” Steele said on his team as a whole. “There are no easy games in the GNAC, and last week we had a little bit of everything. We stayed the course in both games. I am really proud of my team, because those two opponents are really different. It shows a lot of growth and toughness to be able to execute two completely different game plans in the same week.”
 

Now in his 10th season leading the program, Steele has climbed into the upper echelon of GNAC women’s basketball coaches with year-over-year success. Since taking the reigns in 2016-17, he has led the Nighthawks to an overall record of 154-94 (.621) including a mark of 102-55 (.650) in conference play. NNU claimed a share of the 2017-18 GNAC regular-season title as well as the 2019 GNAC Championships title, as he has delivered a pair of conference trophies to Johnson Sports Center in Nampa. He is among eight coaches since the league was formed in 2001 to collect 100 ore more conference victories.
 
Last week’s results displayed that the Nighthawks will be strongly in the hunt for a top-six spot in the GNAC standings to earn a berth into the 2026 GNAC Championships. With 13 regular-season conference games remaining on the schedule however, NNU has its sights set no further than this week’s opponents as it will travel to take on Montana State Billings (9-9, 1-4 GNAC) at 5:15 p.m. (Mountain) on Thursday and Seattle Pacific (4-10, 1-4) at 5:15 p.m. (Mountain) on Saturday. “Every road trip is hard in this conference, and every set of games is hard,” Steele said. “We have to keep doing the things we did well, and get better at the things we didn’t do well.”
 
GNAC Team of the Week presented by Athletic Solutions
Athletic Solutions was introduced as an official partner of the GNAC on Dec. 8, 2025 and it will sponsor the GNAC Team of the Week award. Athletic Solutions is a national leader in NIL fan engagement and e-commerce technology, collaborating with colleges and universities to bring NIL Locker Rooms to life. Its platform simplifies NIL opportunities, providing student-athletes with the tools and exposure needed to thrive in the evolving landscape of college athletics.