BELLINGHAM, Wash. – The Saint Martin's women's basketball team (3-4) finished the Lynda Goodrich classic on a high note Saturday afternoon with a statement 79-69 win over the Dominican (CA) Penguins (2-4). On Friday afternoon, the Saints dropped the opener of the classic, with a 67-46 loss against Bemidji State (3-1).
 
Friday, November 25^th vs Bemidji State
The offense struggled to get going in the loss to Bemidji State on Friday, with points hard to come by for both in the contest. The opening possession was won by the Saints and Anjel Galbraith broke the scoring open with layup as the shot clock was running down. Saint Martin's was in control with about two minutes left as Emily Nelson hit a bucket to make it 13-9 SMU. However, the Beavers scored four straight to finish the quarter and take a one-point love into the second. Lauryn Morris started the second with a jumper to put the Saints in front right away. The Beavers lurched back in front, but SMU would once more be ahead when Galbraith laid it in with 5:44 to go. Unfortunately, that would be the Saints final lead of the ballgame with Bemidji increasing their lead throughout the remainder of the contest.
Galbraith led the way with 20 points for SMU, while Morris had six points to go with six rebounds.
 
Saturday, November 26^th vs Dominican (CA)
It was a gritty second half effort from Saint Martin's that did the trick in a comeback effort over the Penguins out of Dominican. Trailing 34-29 at half, Kiana Rios decided that it was her time to put the team on her back, much by way of the long ball. Galbraith started the half with a three of her own, one of two that she had on the night, before Rios followed that up with a tres to make put SMU up 35-34 in the blink of an eye. When Dominican took back the lead, Avery Oaster hit a layup to vault SMU out in front. Rios struck again nailing two more three-pointers back-to-back that lofted Saint Martin's up seven. When the Penguins overplayed Rios's shot, she drove into the paint and knocked down a layup to put SMU up nine. Dominican went back on a run over their own, but Morris hitting a shot right before the end of the quarter put the Saints up four, and the Penguins answered which had SMU with a two-point edge going into the fourth.
 
Morris continued trending up in the fourth as she opened the frame with two more shots as the Saints now led by six. When DU pulled within one, it was two three-point plays, an and-one from Morris and a shot from behind the arc from Rios, that had SMU with a 61-54 advantage. Morris continued piling it on with a layup and Galbraith knocked down two free throws for the Saints to push their lead to double digits. Rios continued her second half hot streak with a "nail-in-coffin" three with 5:09 to go that put SMU up 13.
When the dust had settled, SMU won the ballgame by ten and Rios stood with 31 points, the most in her young Saints career and the most scored by any Saint Martin's player all season. She also nearly missed out on a double-double as she totaled a career-high nine rebounds. Galbraith totaled 21 points, and Morris helped pushed the Saints across the finish line with her 15-point, seven-rebound, four-assist performance.
 
Lynda Goodrich Classic All-Tournament Team
Kiana Rios was named to the All-Tournament team after her 31-point outburst on Saturday afternoon. She finished with an average of 16.5 PPG.
Anjel Galbraith also garnered All-Tournament honors scoring an average of 20.5 points per game for SMU, alongside with being one of the top defensive players in the field with an average of four steals per contest.
 
The Saints are now heading into conference play as they open their GNAC season with a battle against Northwest Nazarene (4-2) on Thursday, December 1^st. Tipoff will be at 5:15 PM in Nampa, Idaho.