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BELLINGHAM, Wash. - Senior guard Kyle Impero scored a game-high 23 points to lead the Western Washington Vikings to a 101-64 victory over Simon Fraser University Tuesday evening in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference men's basketball game at Whatcom Pavilion.

The Vikings improved to 7-4 overall and are off to a 2-1 start in GNAC play. Simon Fraser drops to 1-8 overall and 0-3 in conference games. Western has won 14 of the last 15 meetings vs. the Clan.

Impero (Everson, WA/Nooksack Valley/Whatcom CC) led the Vikings in scoring for the fourth time this season. After missing his first shot of the game, he was a perfect 9-for-9 from the field the rest of the way to finish with his third 20+ point game of the season. In 11 games this season he is averaging 16.5 points per game.

Impero led three Vikings in double-digits scoring, with junior forward Jeffrey Parker (Richmond, CA/Salesian) scoring 22 points and sophomore guard Brett Kingma (Mill Creek, WA/Jackson/Oregon) adding 19 points (5 3-pointers).

Sophomore forward Evan Scholten (Bothell, WA/Cedar Park Christian) made his season debut after coming back from a broken bone in his right (shooting) hand to contribute 3 points, 3 rebounds and a pair of blocked shots. Senior point guard Ricardo Maxwell (Cincinnati, OH/Withrow/Edmonds) tallied a season high 10 assists.

Overall the Vikings shot 52.9% from the field, hitting a season-high 14 three-pointers. WWU had a 25-to-10 assist to turnover ratio and went 13-for-15 from the free throw line.

"I thought we brought a lot of energy to the court tonight and shared the ball well," said head coach Tony Dominguez. "We stressed all week in practice to make that extra pass and extend our offense. I thought we did that tonight. I am proud of our assist-to-turnover ratio."

Simon Fraser was led by 17 points from JJ. Pankratz and 12 points from Hidde Vos. The Clan played without two of their top players, Max Barkley (17.3 ppg) and Oshea Gairey (11.0 ppg).

The Vikings trailed early 17-10, but went on a 14-4 run to gain the lead at 24-21 and never looked back. Western ended the half on a 36-19 run to take a 10 point lead at 46-36. Impero led all players with 16 points on 7-for-8 shooting and Parker added 12 points. Vos and Pankratz each scored 10 points for SFU.

WWU picked up right where they left off in the first half, opening the second half with an 11-2 run to extend the lead to 19 points at 57-38. The Vikings led by as many as 40 points at 97-57 with 2:06 remaining in the game before closing out the 37-point victory. Kingma scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half, connecting on 5-of-6 three-point attempts.

The Vikings (7-4, 2-1 GNAC) return to action Friday with a non-conference game vs. Quest (Squamish, B.C.) at Skagit Valley College in Mount Vernon (7 pm). WWU's next GNAC game will be January 2 at Montana State Billings.