LACEY, Wash. – After leading by three at halftime, the Saints outscored the The Evergreen State College Geoducks 50-25 in the second half to cruise to the 85-57 victory over their local rival inside another packed Marcus Pavilion.
 
In a tale of two halves, the Saints (8-2) responded from a 35.9/26.3/40.0 percent shooting line in the first half to 58.1/50.0/53.8 percent in the second half to run away from the Geoducks (1-11) and maintain their perfect home record this season.
 
The Geoducks took the early lead, using a 9-2 run, before a 3-pointer by EJ Boyce gave SMU back the lead. Evergreen State continued their run, stretching it out to 15-5, and claiming the 17-10 lead with 11:44 remaining in the first half.
 
Evergreen State led by as many as eight in the first half, before Saint Martin's responded with a 13-2 run, sparked by two baskets by Jared Mathews. Tavian Henderson, Boyce and Mathews accounted for all 13 points in the stretch and put SMU back on top 30-25 with 4:44 remaining. The Geoducks closed the gap to one multiple times in the final minutes, but a last second layup by Luke Chavez sent the Saints into halftime with a 35-32 lead.
 
A layup by Matt Dahlen, a 3-pointer by Rhett Baerlocher and another dunk Henderson extended the Saints' lead to nine in the opening minutes of the second half. Chavez and Baerlocher knocked down multiple 3-pointers and BJ Standley hit a jumper in the paint to further open up the score (54-38) with 13:53 left in the game.
 
SMU opened the half on a 19-3 run to pull ahead and they never looked back as 14 Saints added to the scoring the second half, led by Baerlocher's 10 points on a perfect 4-for-4 shooting and Boyce added three more 3-pointers. Saint Martin's clinched their third straight victory at home and improved their record to 8-2 overall before returning to a grueling conference schedule.
 
Leading the way for SMU was EJ Boyce with 24 points on 8-for-13 shooting from deep, with all his shots coming beyond the arc. Chavez added 13 points and a game-high eight assists while Henderson, who earned his first career start, finished with 10 points and seven boards. All 14 Saints who entered the game, scored at least one point.  
 
 
As a team, Saint Martin's shot 32-for-70 (45.7 percent) from the field, 12-for-33 (36.4 percent) beyond the arc, and 9-for-18 (50.0 percent) at the free throw line. The Saints recorded 38 rebounds with 19 assists on only seven turnovers, along with 10 steals and two blocks.
 
The Saints will take over a week off for the holidays before returning home to host Simon Fraser on Dec 28 at 7:00 p.m. Live stats and video will be available on smusaints.com and a radio broadcast will be available by the Bryant and Clark Sports Connection.