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February 23, 2008 Lacey, WA – Saint Martin’s rallied from a double digit deficit to pull within one in the final seconds but came up short falling to Northwest Nazarene University 64-62 in a Saturday afternoon Great Northwest Athletic Conference contest. With 3:36 left in the game the Saints were down by 14 but a layup by Jake Linton started what would be a 17-4 run in which Linton and Brendan Campbell combined for 15 points and was capped off by a Nick Smith layup to put SMU down by just one with 13 seconds on the clock. After Justin Parnell went to the line for NNU and hit both shots giving them a 63-60 advantage Linton was fouled and sank his two to make it 63-62 with four seconds to go. Forced to foul, SMU sent Parnell to the line yet again. He missed the second shot and the Saints got the board with just under three seconds to play but there just wasn’t enough time. “This was a tough loss that negated a great effort. We didn’t have the energy to beat a team as good as NNU but we had the heart to give ourselves a chance. In those final minutes we challenged our guys to try to give it one last push and they did a great job responding; as a coach you really can’t ask for more,” said head coach Keith Cooper. Saint Martin’s was led by Bill Richardson with a game high 22 points, going 10-19 from the field, and pulling down seven rebounds. Linton added 17 points and six assists while Campbell had 12 points. The Crusaders were led by Joel Ryman with 20 points and Scott Helpenstell with 14 rebounds. The Saints, now 12-12 overall and 7-8 in the GNAC, got beat on the boards 45-34. However, they outshot the Crusaders 40.7 percent to 34.5 percent. “We did a great job defensively,” said Cooper. “We defended probably as well against them as anybody all year.” The Saints don't play again until March 1st when they head to Monmouth, OR to face Western Oregon.
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