LACEY, WA — Saint Martin's Women's Basketball (11-6, 4-5 GNAC) hosted the Northwest Nazarene Nighthawks in a mid-season GNAC showdown last Saturday.

The Saints would start the game on fire from the field, putting up an impressive 29 points in the first 10 minutes of play. The offensive attack would be spearheaded by true freshman Jada Travis in one of her best games of the year, contributing a season-high 28 points, six assists, four boards, and three steals. This would be her 14th double-digit scoring performance of the season. Avery Oaster would join Travis on the scoring front, contributing 14 points on 6-7 (85.7%) shooting from the field while Kiana Rios would chime in with a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds and go a perfect 6-6 from the charity stripe. The Saints would be outscored in the second period 18-11, but with the 29-12 lead they had built in the first, they would take a 40-30 lead into halftime with the momentum in their favor. After the break, the Saints would pick up right where they left off, and would not let go of the lead for the rest of the game.

SMU would continue to impress on the scoring front in the second half, with Madelyn Brown adding nine points to the scoreboard while contributing four assists and three rebounds. Iternite Reed would stand out in the final 20 minutes of competition for her defensive presence with five points, five boards, and a team-leading four steals, and would be joined in the paint by Sarah Lamet, who would also grab five rebounds and would add a couple of points and a block to her final stat line. The Nighthawks would continue to battle back, but the suffocating Saints' defense would prevent NNU from mounting a comeback of any sort. Keeli Jade Smith would contribute a couple of points and rebounds to the stat sheet while Sabrina Lopez would score seven points in her first six minutes played since December 2024. The Saints would pull away and win by a final score of 79-58 to help them grab a conference win against a good Nighthawks squad.

Head Coach Natalie Marlowe was pleased with how the team responded after Thursday's loss to Central Washington and pointed out Jada Travis's monumental performance:

"After a tough loss on Thursday, I couldn't be happier with our response tonight. Jada was in her bag. I haven't seen many freshmen handle themselves the way she did against pressure and different defensive coverages. We played some beautiful basketball; touch passes and confident finishes in transition were a huge part of our success. We needed this one to build some confidence going into a big road trip next weekend."

SMU Women's Basketball will be back in action this Thursday, January 30th, as they travel to Bellingham to take on Western Washington. You can get tickets here.