SEATTLE, Wash. – In front of a traveling contingent of over 300 Saints fans, the Saints Martin's men's basketball team opened their season Sunday night with an exhibition loss against the University of Washington.
 
Newcomer Diego Trejo-Delgado led the Saints in scoring with a total of 14, while another newcomer in Myles Samuels was right behind him with 12. Tyke Thompson was the leader on the glass with six boards. Shakeem Alcindor, Marcus Lenker, and Nathaniel Stokes all grabbed five rebounds each. Kyle Greeley played the most minutes totaling nine points, four rebounds and two steals.
 
The outpouring of support from the Saint Martin's faithful was the highlight of the night as around one-third of the fans in attendance were cheering on the Saints. The Saint Martin's cheer team was also there to represent SMU and ring in the start of the 23-24 season.
 
When asked what he thought of tonight's game, Director of Athletics, Steve O'Brien had this to say "I wouldn't get too hung up on the outcome of an exhibition game against an excellent Pac-12 program. For our part, we had over 300 fans in attendance, including representation from at least half of our other intercollegiate athletic programs, and the on-court experience was shared by both our men's basketball program and our cheer team. As a department, we want to build a foundation that supports the competitive success of our teams, and we want this upcoming basketball season to offer a home for all Saints. In building a pre-season schedule that includes a strong Division I opponent and in generating the crowd we saw tonight, we are excelling on both of those fronts."
 
"I would also like to thank all of the Saint Martin's alumni, trustees, parents, current students, faculty and staff who turned out for tonight's game. When you can generate this type of support for an away game that tips-off late on a Sunday night, it gets me excited to think about the game day atmosphere we're going be able to produce at Marcus Pavilion this season."
 
The Saints now travel much further to get their official DII schedule underway with a neutral site matchup with the University of Hawaii Hilo in Santa Barbara, California on Friday, November 10^th. That game is slated to start at 3:30 PM.