ELLENSBURG, Wash. – Saint Martin's concluded their first conference road trip with a 2-0 record as they held on to defeat Central Washington, 71-66.
 
The Saints (7-1, 2-0 GNAC) used a balance attack in the victory as four players recorded double digits. Jaden Nielsen-Skinner showed his playmaking prowess with 13 points and five assists to have a hand in 27 of SMU's 71 points. Kyle Greeley also put up 13 points to go along with his five rebounds and Tyke Thompson flirted with a double-double with 12 points a seven rebounds. Christian Haffner showed why opposing teams can't afford to leave him open as he went 3/6 from deep in his 11-point performance.
 
Saint Martin's continued the starting lineup of, Nielsen-Skinner, Greeley, Thompson, Shakeem Alcindor and Nathaniel Stokes. Alcindor clocked in and immediately went to work at the post office, scoring the first four points for the Saints with hook shots. The two teams traded the lead back and forth for the majority of the first half until SMU used a late 13-6 run to put them up 26-19 with six minutes left in the half. The Saints went into the break with a 31-23 lead.
 
In the second half, Saint Martin's managed to push their lead to double digits and held but with about 10 minutes left in the half the Wildcats (1-7, 0-2 GNAC) began their comeback. With just under nine minutes left in regulation, the game was tied up at 44 a piece. CWU look two late leads but clutch three points by Branden Bunn and Nielsen-Skinner promptly gave the Saints back the lead. The Saints used some stellar defense and a late 8-2 run to hold on and win 71-66.
 
Head coach Aaron Landon was impressed by his team in the win and their weekend performance, "We didn't score it well early but our guys were great defensively in the first half. Central was really tough on the offensive glass tonight. I'm really proud of how our players responded late in the game when Central took the lead. Our guys showed a ton of resilience on the road for the second time this week, that's a really important characteristic for our team to have."
 
SMU will make a quick stop home facing Capilano University on Tuesday, December 6th at 7 PM. Live stats and video will be available on smusaints.com.