Box Score

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. - The Western Washington University Vikings used a strong second half to pull away from Quest University in a 97-58 non-conference victory Friday evening in a men's college basketball game at Skagit Valley College.

The Vikings (8-4) led by three points at halftime 36-33, but pulled away with a dominating second half outscoring the Kermodes 61-25.

Senior guard Kyle Impero (Everson, WA/Nooksack Valley/Whatcom CC) led the Vikings with 21 points on 8-for-12 shooting, and also added a team-high 7 rebounds and 3 assists. Senior point guard Ricardo Maxwell (Cincinnati, OH/Withrow/Edmonds CC) added 17 points (all in the second half) and sophomore guard Brett Kingma (Mill Creek, WA/Jackson/Oregon) added 11 points (3-for-3 3-pointers). Junior forward Jeffrey Parker (Richmond, CA/Salesian) rounded out the Vikings double-digit scorers with 11 points.

All 12 active players scored at least one basket for the Vikings, including single-game career-highs from Evan Scholten (Bothell, WA/Cedar Park Christian) with 8 points and Blake Fernandez (Mountlake Terrace, WA/Edmonds CC) with 7 points.

Western took a 36-33 lead into the half after sophomore forward Scholten hit a three-pointer with 9 seconds left on the clock. After trailing by 9 points at 21-12 at 11:51, the Vikings went on a 24-12 run to close out the first half. Parker (7 points) and Impero (6 points) led the Vikings in scoring. Zayas-Duran led all player with 8 first-half points.

The Vikings came out running on all cylinders in the second half to put the game out of reach. Maxwell scored all 17 of his points in the half and Impero had 15 of his 21 points in the second half. WWU shot 66.7% from the field in the second half (24-for-36), compared to 44.8% (13-for-29) in the first half.

"We had zero energy in the first half, and to be honest, we just didn't have any focus," said fourth-year head coach Tony Dominguez "We refocused at the half, shuffled things up a little bit, and got back to being the team we are each day in practice."

The Kermodes were led by 19 points from Theo VandenEkart, who was 5-for-6 from three-point range.

The game wrapped up the non-conference portion of the schedule and the Vikings will return to Great Northwest Athletic Conference action January 2 at Montana State Billings (7 pm MT, 6 pm PT).