LACEY, Wash. – Second half offensive bursts by Luke Chavez and Matt Dahlen powered the Saints' 53 second half points; however, Saint Martin's fell short to Western Washington, 90-86, in a rematch from last year's GNAC semifinal on Saturday night inside a packed Marcus Pavilion.
 
Despite trailing by double-digits in the second half, Saint Martin's (9-3, 2-2) began winning the rebounding battle against the nation's leading rebounding team, and chipped away at the Vikings' (9-3, 4-0) lead; however, WWU was able to stave off the comeback attempt and win a hard-fought GNAC game.
 
The Saints' only lead off the game came in the early goings off the match, with SMU jumping out to a 5-4 lead on a jumper by BJ Standley. After a Chavez jumper tied the game at 7-7, Western Washington responded with a 9-0 run to establish control with 13:08 left in the first half.
 
A pair of EJ Boyce 3-pointers and a fastbreak bucket by Tavian Henderson helped spark the Saints' offense, pushing the Saints back to within six with 8:10 left in the half. The Vikings extended the lead back to 11 as SMU and WWU traded baskets over most the half. Rhett Baerlocher and Standley knocked down baskets in the paint to help SMU pull to within seven before going into the locker room for halftime.
 
Coming out of the break, Western Washington struck quickly, scoring six points in the opening minute to capture their largest lead of the game at 13. Dahlen, who had two points in the first half, kickstarted the Saints' offense with layup and one, followed by a dunk. Boyce kicked in with back-to-back 3-pointers, and in just two minutes, the Vikings lead had dwindled to six points.
 
Saint Martin's trimmed the lead down to four twice in the following minutes on baskets by Jared Mathews and Standley, before a 5-0 run by the Vikings put WWU out in front 70-60 with 7:55 remaining.
 
Chavez, who leads the Saints in scoring, had been held to 10 points; however, the final seven minutes, scored 15 points to finish with 25, and closed the score to as little as 86-64 after a made 3-pointer. The Vikings sealed the victory at the free throw line, clinching their fourth straight victory in conference action, 90-86, inside Marcus Pavilion.
 
Chavez put together a complete game, ending with 25 points, four rebounds, five assists and three steals while only turning over the ball twice.  Dahlen tied his season-high 16 points, with 10 points from the charity stripe, along with five boards in 21 minutes of action. Boyce recorded all 15 of his points from beyond the arc and Tavian Henderson ended the game with nine points and nine rebounds.
 
Saint Martin's shot 28-for-64 (43.8 percent) from the floor, 8-for-21 (38.1 percent) beyond the arc and 22-for-28 (78.6 percent) at the free throw line. The Saints finished with 36 rebounds, eight assists on 12 turnovers, along with one block and eight steals.
 
SMU will travel to the state of Alaska for their upcoming conference games, starting with Alaska Anchorage on Jan 4. Tip-off is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. with live stats and video links available on smusaints.com.