LACEY, Wash. – Jaden Nielsen-Skinner nearly finished with a triple double, leading the Saints with 14 points, 10 assists, and seven rebounds as Saint Martin's rolled past Western Washington 82-71 on Thursday night.
 
Becoming the first team in the GNAC to double-digit wins, Saint Martin's (10-3, 3-1) jumped out to an early lead over the Vikings (8-5, 1-2). Western Washington managed to erase an 11-point deficit in the second half before the Saints finished the game on a 27-15 run. Kyle Greeley led all scorers with 20 points on 7-for-11 shooting, followed by Brett Reed's 16 points, eight rebounds. Tyke Thompson was the fourth Saint in double-digits at 11 points, and nine rebounds.
 
Getting the start for the injured guard Alex Schumacher, Christian Haffner connected on a 3-pointer off the opening tip to the give the Saints an early lead. SMU jumped out to a 10-3 lead in the first two minutes, and never trailed in the first half.
 
Western Washington managed to cut the lead to just one at the 13:00 minute mark in the first half, but a 3-pointer from Thompson answered right back. With more another round of 3-pointers from Haffner, and Thompson, along with layups from Reed, and Nielsen-Skinner right before the half, the Saints went into the locker room with a 44-33 lead.
 
The 11-point lead was the largest of the night for the Saints, but a quick 6-2 start for the Vikings gave them hope. Western Washington proceeded to attack, and trim down the score until a layup from Jalen Green gave them a 54-53 lead at the 12:40 mark. However, the Vikings' lead held for only 27 seconds until a Greeley layup put SMU back on top.
 
Saint Martin's never looked back, finishing the final 10 minutes of the game on fire, scoring 27 points, and opening up another double-digit lead. The highlight finish came on a putback flush from center Marky Adams, who ended with six points, and four rebounds. Saint Martin's rolled to their sixth straight victory of the season, the longest since 2018.
 
Saint Martin's returns to action on Saturday, January 15 at 7:30 pm against Simon Fraser. Live stats and video of the game will be available on smusaints.com.