COMING UP: The Evergreen State College (3-15 overall, 3-10 CCC) hosts the Eastern Oregon University Mountaineers (14-8, 10-3) at 5:30 p.m. Friday and the College of Idaho Coyotes (5-14, 4-9) at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday in Cascade Collegiate Conference contests.

FOLLOW THE GEODUCKS: All Evergreen home basketball games are available either via live stats or pay-per-view video stream at http://portal.stretchinternet.com/evergreen/#. John Hammargren is in his fourth year as the play-by-play voice of Evergreen basketball.

ABOUT THE GEODUCKS: Seven, eight and nine are good numbers to know in describing the Evergreen women's basketball team at this point in the season. With seven games remaining on the conference schedule and eight available berths in the Cascade Collegiate Conference postseason tournament, the Geoducks find themselves in ninth place with a 3-10 record. They trail College of Idaho (4-9) by one game and have already lost to the Coyotes this year, so getting a win on Saturday night against the 'Yotes would be helpful regarding tiebreaker scenarios. In order to stay in the playoff hunt the Geoducks need to maintain their strong rebounding – they average 4.8 more rebounds per game than their opponents – and continue to find ways to get the basketball to post players Gabi Fenumiai and Uriah Thomas. Junior point guard Lacey Morris is doing well in that regard as she leads the conference with 5.5 assists per game. Fenumiai, a junior, averages 17.9 points and 7.7 rebounds per game, both second best in the CCC, while Thomas, a senior, is fourth in rebounding with 7.4 per game and among the league leaders with 12.4 points per game. Fenumiai is a highly ranked shooter from the field with .523 percent accuracy, while Thomas is among the best at the free throw line, hitting .800. Other individuals ranked among the CCC best are junior forward Autumn Moorcroft, who is shooting .489 from the field, and senior guard Irene Moore, who has 1.6 steals per game.

ABOUT EASTERN OREGON: Since the 2001-02 season, Eastern Oregon has been the preeminent women's basketball program in the Cascade Collegiate Conference with six outright and two shared league championships. It has won the last three CCC regular season titles while accumulating a 48-6 conference record, including a 16-2 mark a season ago. Things started rough for the Mountaineers this year, however, and with three CCC losses already it is not likely that they will repeat. Still, this is a team that is capable of winning on any given night. While that is a cliché, the evidence is that the only loss suffered by conference leader and Top 10-nationally ranked Southern Oregon came to the Mountaineers. EOU averages 71.6 points in conference play and has outscored its foes by 19.2 points per game, and it also grabs 6.8 more rebounds per game than its opponents. The Mountaineers are among the better shooting teams in the league and their three-point defense – opponents make just 27 percent of their long shots – is tops in the CCC. Sophomore guard Payton Parrish, who shoots .512 percent from beyond the three-point line, leads a balanced attack with 12.8 points per game. Senior guard Jordan Klebaum averages 12.5 points and 2.5 steals per game, while senior forward Madeline Laan averages 10.7 points while shooting .524 from the field. Senior forward Nikki Osborne leads with 6.3 rebounds per game and senior point guard Maloree Moss averages 4.6 assists while leading the conference in assist-to-turnover ratio.

THE FIRST TIME: Eastern Oregon outscored Evergreen by 17 points in the final quarter to rally for a 70-55 victory – its 15th straight win over the Geoducks – on New Year's Eve night in La Grande. The Mountaineers scored 19 of the game's final 23 points over the final 7:35 of the contest to pull out the win. Gabi Fenumiai led Evergreen with 17 points and she tied for game-high rebounding honors with nine. Victoria Elleby tallied 16 points and Uriah Thomas added 12 for Evergreen. Maloree Moss led Eastern Oregon with 14 points.

ABOUT COLLEGE OF IDAHO: The Coyotes, who play at Northwest University in Kirkland on Friday, come into the weekend off of their most impressive win of the season, a 21-point romp over then second-place Northwest Christian. As mentioned earlier, Saturday's game has potential playoff implications for both the 'Yotes and Geoducks. College of Idaho averages 64.6 points while allowing 67.7 in conference play, and it is on the negative side in rebounding with just 34.6 per game compared to 40.3 for the opponent. The 'Yotes are the third best free throw shooting team in the CCC at .725 percent. The unquestioned team leader is junior guard Petra Lumpert, fourth in the conference with 14.8 points per game. She is among the best in the CCC in field goal and free throw percentage and assists per game. Jaycin Tini, a junior forward, tops the team with 5.1 rebounds per game, while junior post Kiara Skinner averages 1.3 blocks per contest.

THE FIRST TIME: Trailing by 17 points early in the fourth quarter, the Geoducks rallied to within one point but came up short as College of Idaho pulled out a 71-66 win the first time these teams played each other on Dec. 30 in Caldwell. The Geoducks got 15 points from Gabi Fenumiai, 14 from Victoria Elleby, 11 from Uriah Thomas and 10 from Irene Moore. Lacey Morris grabbed a team-high nine rebounds and added six assists. Jaycin Tini tallied 16 points and 11 rebounds for College of Idaho, which also got 16 points and four steals from Petra Lumpert.

THE SERIES: College of Idaho has a 32-6 advantage in the series between the two teams.

OREGON TECH 78, EVERGREEN 45: Evergreen shot just 30.5 percent from the field last Saturday night in dropping a 78-45 contest to the host Oregon Tech Owls in Klamath Falls. Gabi Fenumiai led the Geoducks with 13 points.

SOUTHERN OREGON 107, EVERGREEN 65: Despite a 32-point performance from Gabi Fenumiai – tied for second best on the Evergreen single-game list – No. 11-ranked Southern Oregon broke the century mark for the fourth time this season in beating the Geoducks, 107-65, last Sunday afternoon in Ashland.