LACEY, Wash. – Saint Martin's loses a nail-biter against Western Oregon in the last minute of play to hand the Saints a 49-47 loss on homecoming night.
 
SMU (10-8, 2-7 GNAC) held the lead over from the first layup by Lauryn Morris all the way to the 38 second mark in the fourth quarter. The Saints relied on their strong defensive presence to contain Western Oregon but Saint Martin's offense couldn't keep up, only scoring five points in the final quarter to allow the Wolves to sneak away with a win. Claire Dingus made her presence felt on the game with an 18 points and 12 rebounds double-double. Behind her, Morris was the only other double-digit scorer for the SMU with 14 points and six rebounds.
 
Saint Martin's jumped on the Wolves early with a 10-3 run that was capped off by a layup from Dingus. The Saints kept up this momentum and ended the first quarter with a 21-13 lead.
 
The Saints' defense was active and smothered Western Oregon in the second quarter, holding them to only five points total. Morris hit a three pointer with under a minute left to send SMU into halftime with a 10-point, 38-28 lead and all the momentum.
 
Dingus kept the momentum on the Saints end, scoring the first two baskets for SMU. Western Oregon attempted to cut into the lead, but Saint Martin's fended off their efforts with baskets of their own. The Saints maintained a 42-32 lead going into the final quarter.
 
Saint Martin's offense struggled in the fourth quarter and WOU chipped away at the lead. With just under three minutes left to play, the Wolves cut their deficit down to one point before Tierney DeDonatis drained a pullup jumper to extend the lead to three points. With 38 seconds left Western Oregon made a tough layup and took the lead 48-47. The Saints had a few attempts to tie or win the game in the final seconds but fell short and were handed a 49-47 loss at home.
 
Saint Martin's will take a short break before preparing for their next home game against Seattle Pacific on Tuesday, February 8 at 5:30 PM.  Live stats and video of the game will be available on smusaints.com.