Posted 10:51 AM by Emmett
Wilder has brought national attention to Evergreen basketball
The Evergreen State College is known for hippies, not athletes. Students get evaluations instead of grades, and a free vegan dinner is advertised at the activities center.

Posted 5:13 PM by Emmett
Evergreen rallies for nonconference win to make it 17 straight wins

Walla Walla College played at home Saturday night in a game that had an 8:00 p.m. start. Thus, they were due in Olympia – the length of the state away – to play newly-minted Cascade Collegiate Conference champion Evergreen State College just 19 hours after the end of their game with Northwest Christian College.

The Wolves showed they were darn near game enough to pull off an upset under the most difficult of conditions, building a 13-point first half lead before becoming the victims of Evergreen’s 17th consecutive win, 98-82, on Sunday evening at the Greenhouse.

The Geoducks (22-5), getting a steadying performance off the bench from seldom-used point guard Allen Thomas – a River Ridge High School product – in the first half to rally to take the lead for the first time 42-40 on a driving layup by Devin Jones just before intermission.

But the Wolves (13-10) weren’t finished. Paced by Ryan Moore’s 20 points, Walla Walla scooted out to another early lead, 57-50, early in the second half until something, or more to the point, some one happened to them that has been happening to a number of teams lately:

Andre Stewart.

Stewart, who had scored 41 points in Friday night’s 103-90 regular season championship clinching win at Northwest College, nailed four three-pointers in a span of two minutes and 20 seconds, putting the Geoducks up 67-59, to the delight of a surprisingly large crowd for a nonconference game this late in the season.

But Stewart was not the entire story. The chapter that had been missing in recent games was there to be read as well: Quincy Wilder, playing 36 minutes and not getting a rest for the first 29 in only his second game back from a strained Achilles tendon, led the Geoducks with 31 points and 11 rebounds. His four assists were just one short of Evergreen’s leader Greg Johnson. Wilder had tallied 18 against Northwest.

Jackie Robinson, with 16, and Jones, with 14, reached double figures off the Geoducks’ bench.

Although Evergreen’s at-times-sloppy ballhandling led to 24 turnovers, they turned up the heat on the Wolves defensively as well. Walla Walla came into the game averaging 93 points to lead the National Christian College Athletic Association. The Geoducks forced 24 turnovers of their own and held Walla Walla, usually a hot shooting club, to just 39 percent from the floor.

Evergreen travels to Portland to play Cascade College on Friday night and Warner Pacific College on Saturday night to conclude its regular season. The Geoducks host a Cascade Conference first round playoff game on Wednesday, February 20, at 7:30 p.m. against an as-yet-to-be-determined foe.

Should Evergreen continue to win, all three of its CCC playoff games will be played at the CRC. No matter the outcome of the CCC tournament, Evergreen has already clinched a berth in the NAIA national tournament in Point Lookout, Missouri on March 6 through 12.