LACEY, Wash. – Cole Preston's two free throws with four seconds left, gave Saint Martin's University a critical 80-79 win over Central Washington University inside an electric environment at the Marcus Pavilion.

After two free throws by Fuguan Niles, gave Central Washington a 79-78 lead with 14 seconds in the game, Cole Preston drove to the rim, drew contact and reached the free throw line with a chance to win the game and the battle for the final spot in the GNAC tournament.

After starting the game nearly two hours late, due to travel conditions, Saint Martin's (13-10, 7-8 GNAC) opening the game on a 15-2 run, knocking down three 3-Pointers, two coming from Trey Ingram. The Saints did not let up on the Wildcats (12-9, 7-8) extending their lead to 34-13, the largest of the game, after a pair of free throws from Tyler Copp with 8:47 left in the half.

Central Washington found their legs in the later portion of the half, cutting away at the Saints' lead until the lead was only 38-30 with 3:49 left. After trading free throws, CWU ended the half on a dunk from Niles and deep ball from Jawan Stepney, Wildcats trailing 41-36.

The Wildcats opened the half with a 3-Pointer; however, Saint Martin's answered back with a 13-6 run to extend their lead to 54-45 with 14:40 remaining. After trading buckets for the next six minutes, Central began trimming away the Saints' lead until three free throws from Niles gave the Wildcats their first lead of the game, 70-68 with less than five minutes left.

 Central Washington's lead grew to five before jumpers from Rhett Baerlocher and Preston brought the Saints to within 77-75 with 1:12 remaining. With 40 seconds left to play, Copp's potential game-tying layup rimmed out; however, Baerlocher grabbed the offensive rebound, and kicked out to the open Ingram who buried the go-ahead 3-Pointer with 36 seconds remaining.

On the next possession, Niles was fouled attacking the rim and sank both free throws to give Central Washington the lead 79-78 with 14 seconds.
The Wildcats had a foul to give, dwindling the clock to 8 seconds. Preston received the inbound at the top of the key, drove to his left side and put up the shot, before being fouled. At the line, Preston made his third and fourth free throws of the game, and clinching the 80-79 victory.

"This was a fun game, the energy in the gym was electric, the student section was terrific" said head coach Alex Pribble. "You have to credit Central for really battling the entire game. That's a tough group of kids. But I thought our guys matched their toughness down the stretch. We earned this one with some of the lessons that we learned earlier in the season about resiliency and the importance of battling for all 40 minutes".

Baerlocher led all scorers with a career-high 20 points on 7-13 shooting, 6-8 from beyond the arc and grabbed eight rebounds. Preston recorded his first double-double on the season with 15 points and 10 assists. Kenilvort and Ingram came off the bench with 17 and 14 points respectively to go along with Kenilvort's eight rebounds.

As a team SMU finished the night 28-64 (.438) from the field, 14-31 (.452) beyond the arc and 10-17 (.588) at the free throw line. The Saints edged out the battle on the boards (35-34) and compiled 16 assists and four blocked shots.

"This year we are a more experienced group. We've been through it before. The big plays from Cole, Trey, Rhett and others down the stretch were made because they've been through this before. It's great to see them really believe in each other and fight for each other" said Pribble. "Saturday is a big game for us. NNU is a good ball club. It's an important game for us for a lot of reasons, including the fact that it's our seniors final home game. I'm really looking forward to seeing our guys compete on Saturday".

Up Next: The Saints host Northwest Nazarene University on Saturday, Feb. 11 at 7:30 pm on Senior Night. The Crusaders (11-10, 8-7) are coming off a loss to Seattle Pacific University, 83-68. Live stats and video will be made available on smusaints.com