LACEY, Wash. – Saint Martin's looked to test their mettle right out the gate by facing #13 ranked California State San Marcos for their season opener. SMU defeated the Cougars 84-72 for their first win of the season.
 
Saint Martin's (1-0, 0-0) toppled Cal State San Marcos (0-1, 0-0) with a balanced offensive attack that featured five Saints with double digits in the scoring column. Branden Bunn led all SMU scorers with 16 points followed by Kyle Greeley who went a perfect 7/7 from the field for 15 points. Jaden Nielsen-Skinner (12) and Tyke Thompson (10) made their offensive contributions and Shakeem Alcindor held down the front court with 14 points.
 
The Saints came out with a starting lineup of Nielsen-Skinner, Bunn, Greeley, Alcindor and Nathaniel Stokes. After the SMU won the tip, Alcindor scored the ceremonial first basket to open the season for the 2022-23 campaign and was met with a roar of applause from the Saint Martin's faithful. The two teams traded a few baskets before the Saints went on an 6-0 run early in the game to give them a 13-7 lead. Saint Martin's held on to their lead for most of the half before going on a 12-4 run just before the half to go into the locker room with a 45-32 lead over the Cougars.
 
SMU came out of the break locked in and wasted no time extending their lead to 18 in the opening minutes. Cal State San Marcos, fueled by an excellent performance from Greg Milton III, managed to cut into the deficit but Saint Martin's responded before the Cougars could gain enough momentum to get back in striking distance.
 
Around the 10 minute mark, Bunn went into attack mode and jump-started the Saints offense with three consecutive baskets that stifled the cougars momentum again and sent Marcus Pavilion into a frenzy. Cal State San Marcos showed their resolve and with just over six minutes left they managed to cut their deficit to two possessions 72-66. The Saints stayed aggressive and used free throws and a clutch transition three-pointer from Stokes to push their lead back to double-digits and Greeley put the game away with a transition layup off a great defensive read and his trademark fade-away at the end of the shot clock to down the #13 team in the nation 84-72.
 
Head coach Aaron Landon shared his though on his team's performance, "Our guys were awesome tonight. We shared the ball and we did a great job on the glass. We're still trying to figure out our style and system, but our competitive energy was awesome. San Marcos is a very good team and Milton really hurt us tonight. Our guys were resilient down the stretch and found a way to finish the job".
 
The Saints will be back in action today for their second game of the SMU Conference Challenge facing Holy Names University at 7:30 PM. Live stats and video will be available on smusaints.com.