BELLINGHAM, Wash. – The Saints needed to put together a complete 40-minute game to upset the No. 16 Western Washington on the road, and that is exactly what happened. Led by Luke Chavez's 23 points and seven rebounds, Saint Martin's rolled the Vikings 94-82, the first loss for Western Washington in the GNAC.
 
The Saints (14-5, 7-4) took the lead at the 15:14 mark in the first half and never looked back. SMU dominated the boards (36-24) against one of the best rebounding teams in the country in Western Washington (15-4, 10-1) along with five Saints hitting double-digits in scoring.

"This was a great win," said head coach Alex Pribble. "We beat a very tough team on the road, but more importantly, we're starting to really find our identity as a team."
 
Luke Chavez wasted no time to show why he is a two-time GNAC Player of the Week award winner, scoring six of the Saints first nine points, to give SMU a 9-8 lead with 15:14 remaining. Matt Dahlen and Tavian Henderson fueled the Saints' offense, helping Saint Martin's extend their lead to 19-14 with 11:16 remaining.
 
Jared Mathews came in off the bench and quickly became a force, scoring seven points, including a 3-pointer to keep Saint Martin's on top of the Vikings. Guards EJ Boyce and BJ Standley connected on back-to-back 3-pointers to extend the lead to 33-25 with 7:00 minutes left in the first half.
 
The Saints continued their explosive offensive start, going on a 12-0 run, highlighted by a Standley and Baerlocher 3-pointers, to once again extend the lead out to 47-33 with 3:20 left in the half. A basket by Dahlen closed out the half with Saint Martin's handing the Vikings their largest halftime deficit of the year, leading 49-35.
 
SMU did not waste time starting the second half, with 3-point attempts falling for both Chavez and Jordan Kitchen to further extend the lead to 58-37 with 17:10 remaining. Despite trailing by 21, the No. 16 Vikings found new life, making stops on the defensive end, and converting on the other end. Western Washington started chipping away at the lead, going on an 11-2 run, trimming the score to 60-48 with 13:51 left.
 
However, the Saints responded with force, with Chavez hitting a 3-pointer and Henderson and Mathews connecting in the paint, to push the score back out to 69-50 with 11:10 remaining. Both sides traded baskets over the next six minutes with SMU's leading holding at 84-64 with 5:14 remaining.
 
The Saints handled the final five minutes of pressure Western Washington threw at them, clinching their first victory at Western Washington since 2008 with a 94-82 score.
 
Chavez led all scorers with 23 points, on 9-for-18 shooting, along with seven rebounds and three assists. Dahlen set a season-high in points with 18 along with his eight rebounds and season-high six assists. Mathews added 13 points, four rebounds and four assists to the line while Tavian Henderson went a perfect 6-for-6 for 12 points. Kitchen was the fifth Saints to reach the double-digit mark with 11 points.
 
Saint Martin's as a whole shot 36-for-65 (55.4 percent) from the field, 9-for-25 (36.0 percent) beyond the arc, and 13-for-17 (76.5 percent) at the free throw line. The Saints collected 36 rebounds, 24 assists on only 13 turnovers, along with eight steals and three blocks.

"We had 24 assists on 36 field goals, which just illustrates how well we were sharing the ball," Pribble said. "It's fun to watch the guys share the ball and make each other better."
 
SMU travels north of the border to face Simon Fraser on Saturday, Jan 27 at 7:00 p.m. Live stats and video links are available on smusaints.com.