Posted 11:17 AM by Emmett
Bigelow: Man on mission
In the spring of 1998, Bigelow's Olympia Bears were battling defending champion Mercer Island in a state 3A semifinal in front of more than 12,000 fans in the Kingdome. The star senior guard took an elbow to the face early and had to get stitches above his left eye at halftime, but the Bears hung with the champs through most of the game.

Posted 4:58 PM by Emmett
Over the Hump: Evergreen women get first conference victory in final home game of the season, 53-47 over Warner Pacific

OLYMPIA – They had one more chance. On senior night for Evergreen State College’s all-time shot-blocking queen Linnaea Jablonski and reserve Tatiana Craig, the Geoducks got their first conference victory of the season, 53-47, over visiting Warner Pacific College on Tuesday night.

Evergreen (3-24, 1-12) came out as if it intended to do no such thing, falling behind 31-20 at the half to Warner (4-23, 1-12). But the Geoducks stepped up their defensive pressure early in the second half and cut the Knights lead to 35-33 just five minutes in.

After a span of six minutes in which the only scoring was a Warner free throw, Evergreen broke the drought on a 18-foot jumper by Chandra Rathke, who led the Geoducks in scoring with 17. Minutes later, Evergreen took its first lead, 38-36, on a three-pointer by Kristin Zompetti.

Belqui Guardado, who finished with 13 points, hit three of four key free throws down the stretch to help Evergreen preserve the win. Jablonski, who will have three more road games to add to her career shot block record, had four against Warner, scored eight points, grabbed eight rebounds and dished out three assists in her final game at the Greenhouse.

Six-foot-two freshman center Shawna Damon and three-point bomber Michelle Roosa paced the Knights, coached by Seattle Storm player Katy Steding, with 15 points apiece. Damon and team mate Alicia Like tied Jablonski for high rebounding honors with eight each.

Evergreen travels to Portland this weekend for games at Cascade College and Concordia University on Friday and Saturday nights.

Posted 4:55 PM by Emmett
Seattle Pacific 74, Saints 59
Thursday night in Seattle, the Saints held Seattle Pacific to just two field goals in the first 11 minutes and held a 14-9 lead. The Falcons then outscored the Saints 24-8 in the final 9 minutes for a 33-22 lead at intermission.
Saints women's update

Posted 4:53 PM by Emmett
Magic Number down to 1
Although the Cascade Conference playoffs have yet to be played, Evergreen is just a regular season game away from claiming a berth to the NAIA Division II tournament to be played in Missouri next month.

The Cascade’s regular season champion gets one of the league’s two automatic bids and one more Evergreen victory or one more loss by defending champion Oregon Tech would insure the Geoducks the season championship.

Evergreen plays at Northwest College in Kirkland on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. Oregon Tech plays at Cascade tailender Eastern Oregon University at the same time.

Autograph and Photo day this Sunday
Evergreen’s players have become very popular throughout the South Sound through both their on-court success and weekly visits to local elementary and middle schools. Since the players cannot visit every school, Evergreen will try to bring a bit of the flavor of those visits to its nonconference home game with Walla Walla College on Sunday evening at 5:00 p.m.

All kids 13&under will be admitted free and all players will be available for autographs and photos after the game. Kids will also be able to shoot for prizes at halftime. Fans can bring their own cameras and snap as many pictures as they want, and anyone without a camera will still be able to pose with their favorite player for an instant photo for a $1 charge.

More information is available by calling 867-6548.

Posted 4:49 PM by Emmett
No Respect, No Rise in polls
Despite losses by two of the teams ahead of it in the NAIA National Rankings, The Evergreen State College men’s basketball team remained sixth in the latest poll released Tuesday afternoon by the NAIA.

Evergreen (20-5) extended its winning streak to 15 games with an overtime win over 17th-ranked Western Baptist College and a 65-63 victory over Concordia University of Oregon to hold its spot in the poll.

Last week’s #2 team, Northwestern College of Iowa (20-4) lost one of its two games, 81-74 to unranked Concordia of Nebraska while last week’s #4, Flagler College of Florida, was beaten 103-83 by 8th-ranked Warner Southern College, a Florida Sun Conference rival.

Northwestern dropped to fourth in the poll and Flagler to eighth,but instead of Evergreen moving up, Warner Southern (22-4) vaulted into the third position behind leader Evangel College of Missouri (22-0) and Siena Heights College of Michigan (22-4). Evangel continued to receive all 20 first-place votes.

Posted 4:44 PM by Emmett
Andre Stewart is NAIA’s National Player-of-the-Week
Evergreen State College senior guard Andre Stewart, a 6-4 Shoreline CC and Renton High product, was named the NAIA’s National Men’s Basketball Player of the Week on Tuesday after scoring 41 points against Western Baptist and 28 against Concordia over the weekend.

He shot 59.5 percent from the field and 92 percent from the foul line in the two games, but as importantly, came up big in the final minutes of both hard-fought games.

He hit a 25-foot three-pointer with the shot clock running out in overtime against Western Baptist that upped Evergreen’s lead to five and had to hurt the Warriors psychologically. The next night against Concordia, Stewart hit the go-ahead basket as the Geoducks pulled off an improbable comeback from four points down with less than a minute to go. On the decisive play, he got the ball on the right wing and simply drove through the Cavaliers as no one slowed his progress to the glass. In order to be nominated for the national honor, Stewart had to first earn Cascade Collegiate Conference Player-of-the-Week honors, which he did for the second consecutive week.

Posted 4:53 PM by Emmett
Speaking of mighty...
Those mighty geoducks beat 17th ranked Western Baptist and Portland's Concordia (each in a squeeeeeeeeker) this past weekend. Go Clams!

Posted 4:50 PM by Emmett
Those mighty Geoducks
A group of students at The Evergreen State College takes out instruments and begins playing a song. There are the requisite bongo, a tambourine, a recorder, trumpets, a sax and some slide whistles. But they're not playing in the middle of the street during rush hour or as a protest against sweatshops in the Third World.