COMING UP: The Evergreen State College (13-8 overall, CCC 7-7) heads to Portland, Ore., this weekend to play a pair of Cascade Collegiate Conference opponents. The Geoducks face the Warner Pacific Knights (10-16, 3-11) on Friday and the Concordia Cavaliers (11-12, 5-9) on Saturday. Tip off both days is 5:30 p.m.

FOLLOW THE GEODUCKS: If you are unable to make the trip to Portland, you can still follow your favorite team via video stream and live stats.
Warner Pacific: http://portal.stretchinternet.com/wpc/
Concordia: http://portal.stretchinternet.com/cuportland/

ABOUT THE GEODUCKS: Evergreen averages 66.3 points while allowing 59.0 per game, and it is positive 6.1 per game in the rebounding category. The Geoducks are ranked among the top 25 NAIA Division II women's basketball programs in five categories, three of them involving rebounding. Individually, senior post Sadee Jones has moved up to fifth nationally in offensive rebounds per game (4.476) and to 14th in total rebounds per game (10.143). As a team, Evergreen is the CCC free throw percentage leader at .728, and it is third in field goal percentage at .412. Jones, in essence, leads the Cascade Collegiate Conference in both scoring and rebounding. Her former teammate Brittany Gray, whose eligibility ended in early January, appears atop the CCC scoring list with 15.9 points per game but will drop off that list by the end of the season because of minimum number of games played. Jones is second with 14.5 points per game, just ahead of teammate LaNiecia Weatherspoon at 14.4 points per game. Through 21 games Jones has scored 305 points, Weatherspoon 302. Jones leads the CCC with 10.1 rebounds per contest. Gray remains third on the CCC list with 9.3 rebounds per game while Weatherspoon is 13th with 6.2 boards per contest. Senior point guard Randi Boseman is tied for fourth in the conference with an average of 4.0 assists and senior guard Natasha Trinidad is seventh in steals with 1.7 per game (Weatherspoon is next, also with 1.7). Junior post Uriah Thomas is among the field goal percentage leaders with .447 accuracy, while junior guard Karina Gee ranks high on the three-point percentage list with .363 accuracy.

NOT TO GET AHEAD OF OURSELVES, BUT...: With four conference games remaining - two on the road, the final two at home - the Geoducks need just one win to wrap up the program's fourth consecutive conference postseason tournament berth. They currently occupy fourth place in the standings, one-half game ahead of both Oregon Tech and Northwest Christian. Eight teams qualify for the tournament, which gets underway on Tuesday, Feb. 24, with the top four seeds hosting seeds five through eight. Thus, if the playoffs were to begin today, the Geoducks would host a first-round playoff game, something that the Evergreen women's program has never done. The two highest remaining seeds will host tournament semifinal games on Friday, Feb. 27, and the championship contest will be played at the highest remaining seed on Monday, March 2.

THESE SIX WILL DO: The Geoducks will finish the season with just six players after two-sport athlete Irene Moore suffered a non-sports related injury last week. Moore, a NAIA indoor track & field national meet qualifier in the pentathlon, had been an outstanding defensive presence since joining the Evergreen women's basketball team as its seventh member in early January.

COMMON NAME, UNCOMMON GAME: Sadee Jones, by any measure, is in the midst of an outstanding senior season. Twice named the Cascade Collegiate Conference women's basketball player of the week, Jones leads the conference and is tied for ninth nationally with 13 double-doubles (all points-rebounds) this season. She had a streak of seven consecutive double-doubles broken last Saturday against Southern Oregon (Sadee finished the game with 13 rebounds and nine points) but has nine double-doubles in the past 11 contests.

ABOUT WARNER PACIFIC: With a 3-11 record the Knights are mired in the Cascade Collegiate Conference basement alongside Northwest University. For the season Warner Pacific averages 61.8 points while allowing 63.7 points per game. It is on the positive side in rebounding, however, with 3.1 more boards per game than its opponents. What has hurt the Knights is a .381 field goal percentage, which ranks ninth in the conference, and an average of 18.9 turnovers per game, which is most among the 10 CCC programs. The Knights turn the ball over almost three times more per game than their opponents, which is also last in the CCC. The team's leading scorer is senior guard Jordan Wilcox, who averages 13.5 points per game. She is among the conference leaders in most three-point field goals and three-point shooting accuracy, and at the foul line she shoots .816 percent. Lindsay Loe, a junior forward, tallies 12.0 points and 7.7 rebounds (seventh best in the CCC) per game, and 6-3 junior forward Brett Larson adds averages of 5.8 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per contest.

THE LAST TIME: When these teams met in Olympia on Jan. 17, Evergreen defeated Warner Pacific, 68-57. Sadee Jones picked up her ninth double-double of the season, finishing with 24 points and 10 rebounds, while Karina Gee was 3-for-4 from beyond the three-point line, all in the first half, and finished with 15 points. LaNiecia Weatherspoon ended up with 14 points, six rebounds and three assists for the Geoducks. For Warner Pacific, Jordan Wilcox knocked down a trio of threes on the way to 15 points, while Daesha Jackson added 14 and Lindsay Loe 13 points and seven rebounds.

ABOUT CONCORDIA: At 5-9, the Cavaliers are currently tied for seventh place in the CCC standings. They average 64.9 points while giving up 62.2 per game this season, and despite a tall front line are negative 1.4 rebounds per game. The team's height is noticed in blocked shots, where the Cavs are first among CCC team with 6.0 rejections per contest. The team is also first in the CCC in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.2. Breaking down the numbers, they average 15.5 assists while turning the ball over just 12.8 times per game. Jenae Klarich, a senior guard, is the primary reason for the excellent assist-to-turnover ratio. She leads the CCC with 5.8 assists while turning the ball over just 1.4 times per game. The team's top scorer is freshman guard Sierra Dean with 12.8 points per game. Lexi Campbell, a sophomore guard, scores 11.3 per game and shoots .880 at the foul line and .355 from beyond the three-point arc. Jordyn Peacock, a 6-3 junior forward, averages 9.4 points, 7.7 rebounds and 3.2 blocks per game.

THE LAST TIME: Uriah Thomas scored 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds as the host Geoducks gave head coach Jennifer Schooler a fitting birthday gift - a 59-55 win over Concordia on Jan. 16. Sadee Jones finished the game with 13 points and 10 rebounds, while LaNiecia Weatherspoon and Natasha Trinidad both scored 10 points. Lexi Campbell knocked down a trio of three-point field goals on the way to 14 points, while Sierra Dean added 13 for the Cavaliers.

LAST WEEKEND: Evergreen split a pair of home conference contests, defeating Oregon Tech, 74-63, on Friday night before dropping a 74-58 decision to Southern Oregon on Saturday. In the win over Oregon Tech, LaNiecia Weatherspoon scored 21 points and both Sadee Jones and Uriah Thomas recorded double-doubles. Jones ended with18 points and 12 rebounds and Thomas contributed 16 points and a game-best 13 rebounds. Southern Oregon, ranked No. 13 in Division II women's basketball, used a strong inside presence to beat the Geoducks. Carly Meister, named the conference player of the week, notched 20 points and 11 rebounds for the victors. Natasha Trinidad had arguably her best game of the season for the Geoducks with 18 points, including 5-for-7 shooting from the field and 8-for-9 at the foul line.

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