SAN MARCOS, Calif. – There was no "shaking the rust off" in the Saints' season opener, as Saint Martin's outpaced Holy Names 94-88 to tip off the Cal State San Marcos Hoops Classic.
 
Saint Martin's (1-0) was firing on all cylinders offensively, shooting 52 percent from the field, and a stellar 56 percent beyond the arc. Kyle Greeley led the team in scoring with 19 points, followed by Christian Haffner at 18 and Jaden Nielsen-Skinner at 17. The Saints' 94 points is the most in a season opener since 2017.
 
Holy Names led by as many as 10 in the early minutes of the first half. Haffner and Brett Reed sparked the Saints as the two combined for 14 of the Saints' 23 points and pushed SMU on top 23-20 at the 9:41 mark in the first half.
 
Both sides went back and forth throughout the remainder of the first half with Saint Martin's taking a slight 42-40 edge into the locker room.
 
For the first nine minutes of the second half, neither side led by more than a basket. Saint Martin's opened up a five-point lead on a layup by Nielsen-Skinner with 10:55 left on the clock.
 
Holy Names (0-1) went on a 9-2 run to regain the lead at 73-71, which matched their largest lead of the half.
 
Down the stretch, the Saints began to pull away, jumping out to an eight-point advantage on field goals from Goy Wang, and Marky Adams. Right when it looked like SMU had the game in a comfortable spot, Holy Names trimmed the lead back down to two with just 27 seconds left.
 
However, the Saints iced the game at the free throw line on a pair of makes from Nielsen-Skinner, and Greeley.
 
Saint Martin's returns to action tomorrow, Saturday November 13 at 3:00 PM with a match up against host school Cal State San Marcos. Live stats and video will be available on smusaints.com.
 
A Look Into The Numbers:

• Nielsen-Skinner led the team with eight assists with only one turnover
• Alex Schumacher finished with 11 points, six rebounds, four assists
• Haffner connected on 4-of-5 3-pointers
• Brett Reed and Goy Wang combined for 20 points, nine rebounds off the bench
• There was 15 lead changes