LACEY, Wash. – The Saint Martin's women's basketball team (2-3) went into the locker room with the lead on Tuesday afternoon, but a third quarter charge by Azusa Pacific (4-2) was enough to push the Cougars across with the 65-49 win at Marcus Pavilion.
 
After the offense struggled in the first, putting up just 10 points, SMU over doubled that mark in the second. Back-to-back buckets by Kiana Rios and Madelyn Brown cut the Saint deficit to four. Still, APU kept a buffer. Down six midway through the frame, Lauryn Morris took over, starting with two free throws before nailing two straight buckets to tie the game. When the Saints were down three late, Chenoa Louie hit a bucket on one side before a picture perfect boxout on the other side drew a foul and allowed Morris to hit two more free throws, thus giving Saint Martin's the lead with one second left in the half. SMU would hear the buzzer sound with a 31-30 edge going into the intermission.
 
Azusa Pacific was not messing around at all in the third quarter and came out to outscore the Saints by 11 in the frame. The Cougars followed through in the fourth, again outscoring the Saints, refusing to allow SMU to claw back into it. Anjel Galbraith led the way with 16 points, while Morris was right before with 15. Emily Nelson was grabbing everything in sight with a monster 13 rebounds.
 
The Saints will head to Bellingham this weekend as they take on two different teams in the Lynda Goodrich Classic hosted by Western Washington. Tipoff of game one against Bemidji State (2-1, 0-1 NSIC) will be on Friday, November 25^th at 2 PM.