SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The Saint Martin's men's basketball team (2-0) is off to an undefeated start to their season after two convincing wins, first over Hawaii-Hilo 91-80, then over Westmont 75-64. The Saints were the winners of the conference crossover challenge hosted by Westmont, thus emerging as winners, and they were led by Tyke Thompson who had a double-double in both games.
 
Kyle Greeley led all scorers in game one against Hilo as the senior totaled 22. Thompson played nearly the entire 40 minutes with 17 points and 12 boards. Shakeem Alcindor grinded for 11 points and six rebounds. The surprise of the weekend, however, might have been the play of Kaden Hansen, a freshman who redshirted last year and exploded for 21 points to help fuel the Saints to victory. Hansen also had five assists, while Jaden Nielsen-Skinner had six. Hilo was coming off of three wins over GNAC schools last weekend.
 
In another 11-point victory, this time over Westmont, Thompson once again grabbed a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Greeley was right behind Thompson in scoring with 13, while newcomer Myles Samuels had 11 in his second game as a Saint. Hansen once again found a way to shine in somewhat limited minutes. The freshman had 12 points in just 19 minutes. Westmont defeated fellow GNAC school Montana State Billings the day before, so with the win over the Warriors, the Saints became the only undefeated team in the tournament.

"I'm really proud of the way we competed during the entire weekend in Santa Barbara," said Head Coach Aaron Landon, "We're a work in progress, but winning on the road is special and our guys found two big wins to sweep a tough conference challenge. We had really important contributions across the board, but I thought Tyke set the tone and showed a ton of leadership during the weekend."
 
The road doesn't get easier for SMU, as they take on #11 Point Loma tonight, Monday November 13^th, at 7:30 PM.