Western Washington University men’s basketball lost a close 75-71 contest against Saint Martin’s University at home on Thursday, Jan. 26.
The game was tight from the tip-off — neither team led by more than four points for the first 10 minutes of the first half. Redshirt freshman forward BJ Kolly did some familiar bullying in the post during those minutes, posting 10 of Western’s 17 points.
Western continued to outpace Saint Martin’s from there, making five 3-pointers in the following four-and-a-half minutes to accumulate its largest lead of the night, going up 33-24.
After that, however, the Vikings’ offense momentarily stalled, allowing the Saints to go on a 9-0 run and tie up the game. After a few back-and-forth possessions, Western went into halftime up by a slim 40-38.
Coming out of the break, the game continued at a similar pace with neither team extending a lead of more than three points through the first six minutes. The lead then swapped five more times until the Saints went up 54-52 and didn’t let go for the final 13 minutes of the game.
The Vikings lost a couple of possessions to the Saints early in the second half and Western head coach Tony Dominguez said getting behind at that point made the difference in the even-set game.
“I think if we could have eliminated that, I think [the game] would’ve been in our favor, but it wasn’t,” he said.
The men have played a tumultuous set of games in January, going 3-6 in GNAC play. Despite the loss, the game showed a lot of promise, and seven of eight players who touched the court scored six or more points.
“[Kolly] and Kai [Johnson] are going to be All-Americans. We have a guy in D’Angelo Minnis who hasn’t missed a shot all year, [Jonathan] Ned … Darius Gary, too,” Western senior guard Daniel Hornbuckle said. “Now our thing is trying to make the game easy for each other. I think we’re starting to do that, and with that happening, we’re going to start seeing success.”
Kolly collected his third double-double of the season with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Hornbuckle matched Kolly with 16 points of his own while shooting three-for-six beyond the arc.
The first face-off between the Vikings and the Saints this season resulted in a similarly tight game in Lacey, where Saint Martin’s squeaked away with an 89-84 win.
Saint Martin’s recently dropped out of the D2SIDA national rankings after peaking during week five at No. 18.
“We can’t point fingers. We can’t get upset because in life, what would you do? Would you just be frustrated and say, ‘I hate this’ and quit? No, you’ll fight it,” Dominguez said. “We just want to fight to get back to where we think we can be.”
The Vikings host Western Oregon University (8-9, 5-5 GNAC) at 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 28.
