Impero leads WWU men’s basketball to victory

Senior guard Kyle Impero scored a game-high 16 points with nine rebounds to lead the Western Washington University Vikings to a 71-68 victory over Saint Martin’s on Thursday, Dec. 3, at Whatcom Pavilion in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference men’s basketball game.

The Vikings have won three of their last four games to improve to 6-4 overall and 1-0 in GNAC play. Saint Martin’s had their four-game win streak snapped to fall to 4-3 overall and 0-1 in GNAC play.

“We adjusted after getting down early and went back to the basics with our defense and tempo,” WWU coach Tony Dominguez said in a news release. “Tonight was a team effort to put the first half aside and get back to playing the brand of basketball we are capable of. Saint Martin’s played a tough game, so hopefully this will give us some confidence moving forward having won three of our last four games.”

Impero narrowly missed the double-double with 16 points, tied the game-high with nine rebounds and added 3 steals. He is averaging 16.2 points per game and 7.2 rebounds per game through the Vikings first nine games this season.

“Kyle is a player that can do it all on the court and has shown that this season,” added Dominguez. “He was all over the floor tonight and brought some much-needed energy to court for our team.”

Also scoring in double-digits for the Vikings were junior forward Jeffrey Parker with 14 points, senior point guard Ricardo Maxwell with 12 points (four assists) and senior center Mac Johnson with 11 points. Senior forward Colby Mitchell tied Impero for the game high with 9 rebounds.

This story was originally published December 3, 2015 at 10:37 PM with the headline "Impero leads WWU men’s basketball to victory."