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February 21, 2008 Lacey, WA – Saint Martin’s rallied together from an early deficit and posted strong performances on both sides of the ball to defeat Seattle Pacific University 91-68 Thursday night in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action at the SMU Pavilion. “Obviously a great win,” said head coach Keith Cooper. “They are a good team but our kids did a good job of making them look bad. It was a classic example of one team playing really well together versus a team playing as individuals and that was the difference in the game.” It was all Falcons early on as Seattle Pacific opened the game with a 15-0 point advantage. But with 15 minutes to play in the half, down 19-2, the Saints poured it on stringing together a 30-7 run capped off by a deep Jake Linton three, giving SMU the 32-26 lead. The Saints never looked back taking a 42-38 advantage into the break and continuing to add to the tally in the second half. They held the Falcons scoreless for over four minutes as they established a 23 point lead at the 7:38 mark. SMU never let Seattle Pacific get within less than 16 and built their lead to as much as 25 before settling at the final total. The win ends an 18-game losing streak to Falcons since a 99-94 win on Feb. 20, 1999 at Lacey. “With the exception of the first five minutes we played a solid game all around. Defensively we rebounded well and offensively our execution was good,” said Brendan Campbell. “It feels good to be a part of breaking the streak.” Saint Martin’s controlled the boards pulling down 46 rebounds to SPU’s 35. The Falcons struggled offensively shooting 37 percent from the field; they shot just 28.6 percent in the second half (8-28). “We got down in the beginning but we didn’t give up. Jake did a lot of work offensively to get us back,” said Nick Smith. Linton led the Saints with 33 points and seven assists. He was 10-20 from the field and 7-13 from behind the arc. “This is the best win since I’ve been here. It feels good to knock off SPU, especially when they have a good team. When you start off slow it’s hard to come back, luckily we were able to do that and we used the momentum to keep going,” said Linton. “It was everybody tonight. Everybody played good defense, shot well, got steals, everything.” SMU had four other players in double figures on the night including Campbell with 16 points and nine rebounds. Tyler Nixon added 11 points while Michael McIver and Bill Richardson had 10 apiece. “Jake and Brendan are both so competitive that they weren’t going to let us loose tonight, it was just a matter of time,” added Cooper. The Saints will play their final home game of the year Saturday against Northwest Nazarene University in a 2 pm start.
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