Posted 4:56 PM by Emmett
Geoducks seeded 8th at NAIA Nationals, draw Ottawa as first round foe

OLYMPIA – Evergreen State College men’s basketball team will meet Ottawa University of Kansas in the first round of the NAIA Men’s Division II basketball tournament Thursday, March 7, at 7:45 p.m. (PST), the NAIA announced this afternoon.

The Geoducks (25-6) were seeded eighth, dropping just two spots from their ranking in the final poll despite a surprising loss to Southern Oregon University in the Cascade Collegiate Conference semi-finals Saturday night. Southern Oregon subsequently lost its bid to reach nationals by losing the playoff final, 78-68, to Western Baptist College.

Western Baptist (28-6 and the tenth seed) will meet Bethel of Tennessee (23-10) on Wednesday, March 6, at 4 p.m. The tournament takes place at Keeter Gymnasium on the campus of the College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Missouri.

Ottawa (20-10) won both the regular season and playoff titles in the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference, knocking off Kansas Wesleyan, 62-56, for the tournament title Tuesday night.

The Braves are led by 6-5 forward Tony Porter and 6-6 forward Chris McNaughton. Porter, a junior from Kansas City, Kansas, averages 16.8 points per game and 7.7 rebounds per game to lead Ottawa in both categories. McNaughton, a senior from Harrisonville, Missouri, scores 12.3 points per game and grabs six rebounds. Both Porter and McNaughton were named to the All-KCAC First Team.

Nick Young, a 6-1 senior guard from St. Francis, Kansas, was named to the honorable mention All-KCAC team.

A defense-minded club, Coach Andy Carrier’s group yielded just 68 points per game, in stark conflict with Evergreen’s 88 points per game scoring average.

Evergreen, which had a 20-game winning streak snapped by Southern, is led by 6-5 senior guard Andre Stewart, the Cascade Collegiate Conference’s Player-of-the-Year after averaging 21.6 points per game. Quincy Wilder, a 6-3 senior guard, was the second-highest vote getter in the All-CCC balloting, as he averaged 22.4 points per game.

Stewart, a former Shoreline CC star and the State of Washington’s leading scorer while at Renton High School, was also the NAIA National Player of the Week on February 5 while Wilder, who last played at the University of Southern California three years ago, broke Stewart’s single game Evergreen scoring record with a 43-point effort against Cascade College.

Mike Parker, a 6-6 senior, was named the Cascade Conference’s Newcomer of the Year, averaging 15.1 points and leading the league in blocks with 2.2 per game.

The complete First Round pairings:

Wednesday, March 6
8:30 a.m. - Bluefield (Va.) (22-11) vs. #14 Caldwell (N.J.) (24-5)
10:15 a.m - #15 Walsh (Ohio) (22-8) vs. Sioux Falls (S.D.) (24-9).
noon - Tabor (Kan.) (15-15) vs. #2 Warner Southern (Fla.) (27-4)
1:45 p.m. - #3 Cornerstone (Mich.) (31-3) vs. Mount St. Clare (Iowa) (14-18)
4 p.m - Bethel (Tenn.) (23-10) vs. #10 Western Baptist (Ore.) (28-6)
5:45 p.m - #11 MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) (25-8) vs. Ohio Dominican (20-14)
8 p.m - Ozarks (Mo.) (13-14) vs. #6 Jamestown (N.D.) (25-5)
9:45 p.m. - #7 Robert Morris (Ill.) (30-5) vs. Menlo (Calif.) (16-9)

Thursday, March 7
9 a.m. - Briar Cliff (Iowa) (18-12) vs. #12 St. Vincent (Pa.) (21-7)
10:45 a.m - Black Hills State (S.D.) (23-7) vs. #16 Brevard (N.C.) (22-10)
12:30 p.m. - St. Joseph’s (Maine) (18-9) vs. #4 Northwestern (Iowa) (27-4)
2:15 p.m. - #5 Siena Heights (Mich.) (29-5) vs. Northwestern (Minn.) (19-13)
4:30 p.m - #13 Huntington (Ind.) (25-10) vs. Holy Names (Calif.) (20-13)
6:15 p.m. - #1 Evangel (Mo.) (30-1) vs. St. Joseph (Vt.) (10-15)
8 p.m. - #9 Newman (Kan.) (27-4) vs. Holy Family (Pa.) (19-10)
9:45 p.m. - Ottawa (Kan.) (20-10) vs. #8 Evergreen State (Wash.) (25-6)

Posted 2:15 PM by Emmett
Geoducks lose 20-game win streak with semi-final loss to Southern Oregon
University, but are still bound for Missouri and NAIA Nationals

OLYMPIA – Coming in on the high of a 20-game winning streak, the longest in the NAIA, The Evergreen State College men’s basketball team scored its lowest point total of the year and lost 67-59 to visiting Southern Oregon University in the semi-finals of the Cascade Collegiate Conference playoffs Saturday night.

Evergreen has already qualified for the NAIA National Tournament in Missouri next month. Southern Oregon, the sixth seed in the Cascade tourney and a 103-101 upset winner in double overtime at Albertson College of Idaho on Wednesday, must travel to Western Baptist College in Salem on Tuesday to play for the CCC’s other national bid.

Oscar Rodriguez, making only his fifth start of the season, scored 24 points to lead the Raiders, who led for all but a few moments. Matt Zosel added 16.

Evergreen took a 2-0 lead, but then watched as Southern Oregon built a solid lead. With just under two minutes to go in the first half,Evergreen tied it at 33, but Rodriguez scored six consecutive points to give the Raiders a 39-33 halftime edge.

Finally, with 4:33 to play in the game, Jackie Robinson hit a pair of free throws to put Evergreen up 57-56. Seconds later, Mike Parker came up with a steal and ran a two-man break that ended with a Quincy Wilder layup, a 59-56 lead and quite probably the loudest roar in the history of the Evergreen gym from the sellout crowd.

But that was all the Geoducks had. Driving layups by Martin DeGroot and Zosel gave Southern the lead for good and Evergreen never scored again, settling for off-balance three-point attempts on its last four possessions.

Mike Parker led Evergreen with 19 points, all but five in the first half. Andre Stewart, named the Cascade Conference Player-of-the-Year earlier in the day, had 18 points and game highs of nine rebounds and eight assists. Quincy Wilder, hampered by soreness in his injured ankle, had 12 points.

Evergreen will not discover who it plays in the first round of the NAIA tournament until conference and regional tournaments throughout the nation end later this week.

Posted 2:13 PM by Emmett
Geoducks sweep Cascade Conference men’s basketball post-season honors

OLYMPIA – Player of the Year. Coach of the Year. Newcomer of the Year. A first-team all-league player who finished runner-up in the P-O-Y balloting.

No wonder the Evergreen State College men’s basketball team is on a 20-game winning streak heading into tonight’s Cascade Collegiate Conference semi-final playoff game with Southern Oregon University at home at 7:30 p.m.

Senior guard Andre Stewart, who finished second in the conference in scoring at 21.7 points per game and added 3.7 assists per game, was all but a unanimous selection of the conference’s coach, receiving eight first place votes and one second place vote. Team mate Quincy Wilder, a 6-3 senior guard who finished second in the voting, led the conference in scoring at 22.8 points per game.

Stewart played for Renton High School and Shoreline CC prior to Evergreen.

But a strained Achilles tendon kept Wilder, who previously attended Decatur High School and Highline CC, out of four conference games and limited him to nine minutes in another. Stewart’s clutch play in Wilder’s absence clinched not only Evergreen’s first conference title, but the P-O-Y honor over his team mate by the narrowest of margins.

Evergreen coach John Barbee, the only coach the Geoducks have had in their five-year history of intercollegiate basketball, received eight of 10 possible votes for Coach of the Year. Barbee has a 74-63 career record and has yet to reach his 30th birthday.

With Wilder, a transfer from Boise State University, not eligible for consideration for the CCC Newcomer of the Year award by virtue of his being selected a member of the first team all-conference team, Evergreen’s 6-6 junior forward Mike Parker tied for the N-O-Y award with Oregon Tech’s Alasanne Bakayoko.

Parker has a 15.1 scoring average and leads the CCC in blocked shots with 2.2 per game. Parker transferred to Evergreen from Pierce CC after playing at Clover Park High School in Tacoma.

Three Geoduck women also honored: Although Evergreen’s women’s team finished in a three-way tie for seventh place in the Cascade, three players were still mentioned in the post-season voting.

Chandra Rathke, a 5-9 junior transfer from Highline, and LaTyia Williams, a 5-11 freshman from Compton, California, each earned Honorable Mention All-CCC honors. Rathke led the Geoducks in scoring in 16 of their 30 games and finished with a 12.3 points per game average. Williams averaged 8.0 points and 5.4 rebounds per game.

Meanwhile, 5-6 freshman guard Belqui Guardado, from Long Beach, California, was fourth in Freshman of the Year voting. Guardado, filling an unfamiliar point guard role most of the season, averaged 10.8 points and 2.6 assists.

Toledo’s Sellards is women’s Player-of-the-Year: Brooke Sellards, a 5-9 senior forward from Toledo, Washington, was selected as the CCC woman Player-of-the-Year.

Sellards led Eastern Oregon University to the regular season championship, averaging 18.7 points and 6.6 rebounds. The Mountaineers were eliminated from the CCC playoffs in a 92-71 home loss to Albertson College of Idaho on Friday night and may be done for the season.

The CCC has only nine women’s teams and thus just one berth to the NAIA Nationals and EOU's #16 ranking may not be high enough to get them an at-large berth – something that will not be determined until all conference tournaments in the nation are finished Monday and Tuesday.

Posted 2:10 PM by Emmett
Geoducks first-round Cascade Conference playoff game may not be as easy as it looks on paper: Concordia has been playing well in February

OLYMPIA – The Evergreen State College men’s basketball team wrapped up a berth in the NAIA National Tournament 12 days before the conference playoffs are set to begin. The Geoducks’ first round opponent in the Cascade Collegiate Conference playoffs, Concordia University, is the number eight seed, going on the road to face a team that hasn’t lost at home all season and hasn’t lost at all in its last 19 games.

Still, the sixth-ranked Geoducks (24-5 and winners of the Cascade’s regular season title by three games) know they will have their hands full with the Cavaliers (13-8) when they meet Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. at the Greenhouse.

Concordia, led by 6-5 junior college transfer Keith Childs, has won three of its last four games – all against CCC playoff teams. Earlier this month, they led Evergreen by four points with less than a minute to play on that thus far inviolate home court, only to lose, 65-63, to some last minute heroics by the Geoducks. On January 4 in Portland, Evergreen came away with just a five-point win, 78-73.

While Evergreen was saved by the buzzer in its regular season finale, winning 93-92 in overtime at Warner Pacific after a successful Knights’ shot was rule to have come a split-second too late, Concordia was beating conference power Oregon Tech on the road, 83-75.

Senior Sam Nunez came off the bench to lead the Cavs with 22 points, hitting five-of-eight three-point attempts. Childs added 19 points and nine rebounds. Concordia held OIT to 37% shooting.

Concordia’s near-successes against Evergreen earlier in the season can be attributed to the intangible of favorable match-ups that play out on the floor. Statistically, the Cavaliers trail the Geoducks in nearly every category. The Geoducks lead the conference in scoring at 88.0 points per game and the Cavs are but sixth in team defense. Even where Evergreen is weak – it is dead last in the conference in both rebounding and preventing opponents from rebounding – Concordia has no special edge, ranking among the bottom four in both categories as well.

The Cavaliers are first in turnover margin at +4.94, but the
Geoducks are second. The Cavaliers are second in steals with just over 10
per game, Evergreen is first at 12.5. But something keeps the games between
these two close, leaving the promise of an entertaining contest in Olympia
on Wednesday.

QUICK FACTS ON THE PROBABLE STARTERS:
EVERGREEN:
Andre Stewart, 6-5, Guard, Senior, Renton: NAIA National Player-of-the-Week for February 5; twice the CCC Player-of-the-Week. Second in the conference in scoring at 22.1 points per game, fifth in three-point field goals per game (2.24), sixth in assists (3.8), sixth in free throw percentage (82.2). Has a 53.2 field goal percentage and averages 4.5 rebounds per game.

Quincy Wilder, 6-3, Guard, Senior, Tacoma: CCC Player-of-the-Week once this season, he leads the conference in scoring (22.9) on 53.7 shooting. Fourth in steals (2.3) and ninth in offensive rebounding (2.29). Comes in hot after scoring 31 points against Warner Pacific last Saturday, his seventh 30-plus game of the season. Fully recovered from a strained Achilles that caused him to miss four games earlier this season. Grabs 5.8 rebounds per game and averages 2.5 assists.

Greg Johnson, 6-2, Guard, Senior, Dayton, Ohio: Finished the regular season strong with double-figure efforts at both Cascade College and Warner Pacific over the weekend. Second in the conference in steals at 2.8. Averages 8.1 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game.

Mike Parker, 6-6, Forward, Junior, Tacoma: Leads the CCC in blocks at 2.14 per game and is third in steals (2.71), establishing himself as perhaps the premier defensive player in the league. Tenth in scoring (15.1). Grabs 5.4 rebounds and dishes out 2.9 assists.

Will McGill, 6-3, Forward, Senior, Heidelberg, Mississippi: Deceptively effective player who is third in the CCC in blocks (1.03), seventh in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.49) and eighth in assists (3.3). Scores 8.7 on 53.1 shooting that includes three-point range and collects 4.6 rebounds.

Off the Bench for Evergreen: 6-4 swing men Jackie Robinson (fourth in the CCC in free throw percentage at 83.3) and Abel Koeltzow can both score and keep the offense flowing. 6-2 guard Devin Jones provides steady relief at the point for the Geoducks, who generally don’t go more than eight men deep.

CONCORDIA:
Michael Lay, 5-9, Guard, Freshman, Los Angeles, California: One of three newcomers among the Cavaliers starters, Lay played in the fabled Verbum Dei High School program. He has the CCC’s sixth-best assist-to-turnover ratio (1.55). Averages 4.0 points, 2.0 rebounds and 3.1 assists.

Hollis Hale, 6-1, Guard, Senior, Las Vegas, Nevada: Averages 7.7 points, 2.1 rebounds and 2.6 assists.

Nate Ferrier, 6-7, Center, Sophomore, Elma: Averages 6.2 points, 3.1 rebounds and 0.8 assists.

Keith Childs, 6-5, Forward, Junior, Dayton, Ohio: A two-time all-conference choice at California’s Alan Hancock CC, Childs has stepped right in at Concordia to become the CCC’s third leading scorer at 21.2 per game, just behind Evergreen’s Wilder and Stewart, and third-leading rebounder at 9.5 per game. Is sixth in the conference in steals at 1.94 per game. Earned CCC Player-of-the-Week honors last week. His three-pointer at the 58-seconds-to-play mark appeared to sink Evergreen on February 2, before the Geoducks pulled off a miracle finish.

Troy Slonecker, 6-4, Forward, Junior, Eugene, Oregon: A strong blue-collar type presence on the floor and another key part of the Cavaliers rebuilding plan. He scores 12.1 points per game and is ninth in the CCC in three-point shooting (41.5). Grabs 3.5 rebounds and dishes 2 assists per game. Off the Bench for Concordia: 6-1 senior guard Sam Nunez (7.9 points per game), 6-1 sophomore guard Andre Johnson (5.8), 6-4 sophomore forward Jerry Smith (4.7) and 6-5 junior center Ryan Garrison (4.0) all average more than 10 minutes playing time and have started from time-to-time.

THE COACHES:
Evergreen’s John Barbee, at 28, is one of the most successful young coaches in the nation. In his fifth season, he has an overall record of 73-63 as the only coach the Geoducks have ever had. Concordia’s Brad Barbarick is in his eighth season and has compiled a 113-142 mark. The Cavaliers won the 1999-2000 CCC title under Barbarick.

THE LOCAL ANGLE: Cavaliers’ center Nate Ferrier, and his twin brother Matt,a Concordia substitute, were both part of Elma High School’s WIAA 2-A State Championship team four years ago, playing for their uncle, Ron Ferrier. At 6-7, Nate is two inches taller than Matt…. But is 15 minutes younger…. Evergreen’s Allen Thomas played at River Ridge High School and although he has played sparingly, his solid 16 minutes at the point against Walla Walla College on Feb. 10 helped keep the Geoducks long win streak from ending in a nonconference game.

OT ODDITY: An obscure, if somewhat interesting, streak was continued by Evergreen’s overtime triumph at Warner Pacific. When Evergreen athletics director Dave Weber was the men’s basketball coach at Patten College in California, the Lions won the final 10 overtime contests they played under Weber. Since Weber has been Evergreen’s AD, the Geoduck men have played in three overtime games, winning them all. The Evergreen women did drop a 65-62 contest in OT to Whitman College in 2000, however.