Women’s basketball

Northwest Nazarene 49, Saint Martin’s 41 – Recap from SMUSaints.com

Saint Martin’s spotted Northwest Nazarene 16 points to open the game and fell behind again by as many as 15 in the second half but behind a tremendous defensive effort, they cut the Crusaders lead to just one point at 42-41 before NNU pulled away and avoided the upset with a 49-41 win.

The Saints were ice cold to start each half but managed to rally twice to make the game interesting. They didn’t score their first point until a free throw by Chelsea Haskey at the 11:19 mark and didn’t hit their first field goal until the 9:34 mark but went on a 15-3 run over the final six minutes of the first half to cut the Crusaders lead to 25-20 going into the locker room.

Again Northwest Nazarene opened up a big lead with a 12-2 run to open the second half but again the Saints came back cutting the lead to one point twice in the final five minutes. But the Saints were unable to convert and take the lead both times and the Crusaders scored the final seven points to drop the Saints to 4-8 in league play.

GNAC leading scorer Megan Hingston scored 19 points and pulled down 10 rebounds but the Saints limited Chelsie Luke, the GNAC’s fourth leading scorer, to just eight points on 2-of-10 shooting. The Saints held the GNAC’s highest scoring team well under their season average on 30.2% shooting.

No SMU player scored in double digits but Chelsea Haskey, Angela Gelhar and Jordyn Richardson each scored nine points. Mackenzie Taylor scored eight points, all in the first half, and pulled down nine rebounds.

Men’s basketball

Saint Martin’s 60, Alaska Anchorage 52 – Recap from SMUSaints.com

Evan Coulter scored 18 points and Roger O’Neill added 14 points second half points to lead Saint Martin’s to a 60-52 upset of third place Alaska Anchorage in the second game of a men’s and women’s doubleheader at Marcus Pavilion.

As in the women’s game, the Saints’ defense stepped up and held down a high scoring offense. The men held the third highest scoring team in the GNAC to their lowest total of the season and limited the Seawolves three point shooting ace, Kyle Fossman, to just one bucket from long distance. Fossman did score 13 points but shot just 3-of-11 from the field. Teancum Stafford led the Seawolves with 20 points and pulled down 10 rebounds.

Four Saints scored in double digits. Besides Coulter and O’Neill, Brady Bomber scored 11 points hitting three triples and Will Bond added 10 points off the bench. Lucas Shannon scored seven points off the bench but no other Saint got on the board. The Saints second and fourth leading scorers, Eric Taylor and Rei Jensen, were each held scoreless.

The win did come at a cost. The Saints starting center and the GNAC’s top shot blocker Matt Dodson went down with an apparent knee injury in the second half. The 6-10 junior blocked two shots in the first half.

Boys basketball

North River 40, Pope John Paul II 36