Dec. 1, 2016 LACEY, Wash. - Taylor Stafford scored a career-high 30 points and the Western Washington University men's basketball team held off a late charge from Saint Martin's with a strong finish to open the Great Northwest Athletic Conference schedule with a 91-78 victory over the Saints on Thursday evening at Marcus Pavilion.
WWU, ranked No. 18 nationally in the most recent NABC poll, remained unbeaten for the season, improving to 6-0 overall and 1-0 in the GNAC. The Saints fell to 4-3 overall and 0-1 in GNAC play.
The hot-shooting Vikings saw their lead reach as many as 15 points during the second half before Saint Martin's came within 81-76 with 4:00 left in the second half. But that's when WWU answered with a 9-0 spurt as part of a 10-2 run to close the game for the double-digit margin of victory.
Defensively, WWU held the Saints without a field goal over the last 6:51 and offensively it was back-to-back layups from Stafford (Sr., G, Chicago, IL/Evansville) and sophomore center Logan Schilder (Bellingham, WA/Whatcom CC), followed by a three-pointer from senior forward Jeffrey Parker (Richmond, CA/Salesian) to answer the run from the Saints and give the Vikings an 88-76 lead with 1:57 to go.
"Saint Martin's is good, they're very good," head coach Tony Dominguez said. "We got tight there at the end a little bit...but they (WWU) really came through."
Stafford, who scored 19 of his 30 points in the second half, filled up the box score with 8 rebounds, 7 assists and 6 steals. He was 10-for-19 from the floor, including 3-for-7 on three-pointers, and finished 7-for-10 at the free throw line. In addition to his career-high scoring effort, his 6 steals were also a career high. The point guard helped to lead a balanced offense with four players reaching double figures scoring.
"What really is exciting for me to see someone like him (Stafford) do well is that he really wants to do well for the team," Dominguez said, noting the individual stats are not the focus for Stafford. "...he just wants the team to do well so it's fun to him have an individual performance that really does stand out."
Sophomore forward Daulton Hommes (Lynden, WA/Lynden Christian) added 19 points, a game-high 9 rebounds and 5 assists. He scored 17 of his points before halftime to spark the offense early. Schilder added 12 points and 3 blocks while Parker finished with 10 points and 3 assists. Sophomore guard Trey Drechsel (Woodinville, WA/Cedar Park Christian) contributed 7 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists.
While it was Stafford who scored 19 points in the second half, Hommes helped spark the WWU offense in the opening half by connecting on his first 4 three-point attempts. His fourth three-pointer in the first half came at the 9:16 mark to give the Vikings a 25-13 lead en route to a 46-34 halftime advantage.
The Saints cut the WWU lead to 6 points at 56-50 with 15:35 to play in the second half, but an 8-0 WWU run featuring three-pointers from Stafford and freshman forward Trevor Jasinsky (Camas, WA) helped extend the lead to double digits once more and the Vikings maintained a double-digit advantage for most of the half until the late run by the Saints.
WWU shot 47% from the field (31-for-66) and was 48.1% (13-for-27) from long range, led by Hommes who was 4-for-7 on three-pointers. The Vikings went 16-for-23 (69.6%) at the free throw line.
Trey Ingram scored a team-high 18 points for Saint Martin's while Rico Nuno (11 points), Rhett Baerlocher (11 points) and Tyler Copp (10 points) also helped lead the offense. The Saints shot 43.8% (28-for-64) but were just 6-for-24 from three-point range. Saint Martin's was 16-for-19 (84.2%) from the free throw line.
"So far, we've been great as a team," Dominguez said. "You come to timeouts, you come to pregame, you come to practice, and nobody is trying to say `what about me, coach?' It's always, `OK, how do we win, how do we do well?'"
The Vikings play next on Saturday, traveling to face Seattle Pacific on Saturday at 7 pm in Seattle. The game will be broadcasted live on KBAI 930 AM.
Game Notes:Jeffrey Parker now has 1,499 points in 96 career games and ranks 7th on the WWU all-time scoring list...WWU has shot 47% or better from the field in 5 of 6 games this season and 48 percent or better from three-point range in 3 of 6 games.
