LACEY, Wash. - The Saint Martin's University men's basketball team pulled off the upset on Saturday night to earn its first win over a ranked team since 2010 and its first win over Seattle Pacific since 2009 snapping an eight-game losing streak against the Falcons as the Saints earned a 73-69 win over the 11th-ranked team in D2.

SPU led for almost the entire first half and had its biggest lead of nine points at the 9:23 mark. Evan Coulter scored five points in the final 2:13 of the half to keep it close as SMU trailed by just one at the break, 34-33, thanks to his three pointer.

The Saints came out ready to play in the second and quickly erased their deficit. Two Riley Carel free throws gave SMU its first lead since the early minutes of the opening 20 which ignited a 27-11 run for Saint Martin's. The Saints lead grew to as many as 14 points as Carel finished inside to make it 60-46 with 10:44 left in the game.

But the Falcons answered right back with a 12-1 run to cut the Saints lead to just three points, 61-58, on a layup from Mitch Penner with 7:39 remaining. Back came SMU, first a pair of free throws from Ryan Rogers and then a jumper from Carel pushed the lead to seven.

Again SPU pushed back as Cory Hutsen accounted for the Falcons next four points once again making it a three-point game this time with less than three minutes on the clock, 67-64. Brendan Carroll made it a one-point game as he finished inside with just two minutes to go.

Carel missed a look at a three on SMU's next trip down the floor but Matt Dodson came up with a big offensive rebound. A foul sent him to the line where he calmly hit both free throws at 1:24 to put the Saints back ahead by three.

The Falcons attacked and found Carroll who drove to the basket and was foul he finished the three-point play tying the game at 69 with 1:14 left.

Back on the other end Rogers finished strong inside and was fouled but he was unable to finish the three-point play giving the Falcons a shot to tie the game trailing 71-69. David Downs missed his shot and once gain Rogers found his way to the hoop with 32 seconds remaining.

Rogers missed and but again Dodson was there grabbing the rebound but Downs stripped Dodson and the Falcons called one final timeout with 19 seconds on the clock.

The ball found its way into the hands of SPU's top scorer Downs as he spotted up for a three in the corner but hit shot rimmed out and Rogers collected the board. Rogers headed to the line and iced the game making both free throws in    the final 10 seconds to give the Saints the win.

Free throws were big as the Saints shot 81.3 percent on the night while the Falcons converted on just 66.7 percent of their attempts. Rogers and Carel each finished with 17 points on the night. Rogers made 5-of-7 free throws while Carel was 7-of-12 from the field with six rebounds, eight assists and five steals. Coutler added 16 points as he was 6-of-11 from the floor.

The Saints (5-7, 2-2 GNAC) well head to Ellensburg to take on Central Washington next Thursday, Jan. 9th at 7:00 pm.