Box Score LACY, Wash. –The Montana State University Billings Men's Basketball opened up 2014 with a resounding win cruising past Saint Martin's University Thursday night, 66-50.

MSUB (6-5, 2-1 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) went into the game owners of the league's third ranked scoring defense allowing an average of 70.2 points per game. They smothered the saints defensively and held them to season low 50 points. That is the lowest point total MSUB has held an opponent too all season as well.

MSUB was led by Jonathan Mesghna who had a career night scoring 24 points and pulling down 10 rebounds for his first double-double of the season. Marc Matthews contributed 10 points and six rebounds as well. Kalob Hatcher led the game in assists dishing out five. He is currently 14th in the Nation and second in the GNAC in assists per game averaging 6.5 per game.

The Saints (4-7, 1-2 GNAC) struggled to find their rhythm shooting 31.5 percent from the field. They were led by Riley Carel who scored 12 points and Ryan Rodgers who had 10 points to go with five rebounds.

The game was all tied up 15-15 with 13 minutes left until a Hatcher three splashed through the net and sparked at 17-5 run to close out the half and give MSUB a 32-20 lead.

SMU could not fully recover and the closest they would come to the Jacket lead was eight points as MSUB would go onto secure the 66-50 victory.

The Jackets out rebounded the Saints 44-35. Both teams shot exactly the same amount of three point attempts and hit exactly the same amount going 6-23 for 26.1 percent from three point territory.

"The guys played really hard and executed defensively," head coach Jamie Stevens said. SMU missed some open looks, but some of that was due to our defensive intensity. We need to play better in some areas but any road win in the GNAC is a good win."

The Jackets next play Western Oregon University. The game against WOU is scheduled to begin at 2:00 P.M. PT on January 4rth. Stats and live video can be found at http://www.wouwolves.com .