COMING UP: The Evergreen State College (1-11 overall, 1-7 CCC) hosts the Corban University Warriors (7-8, 2-4) at 5:30 p.m. Friday and the Northwest Christian University Beacons (8-6, 4-2) at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Costantino Recreation Center in Cascade Collegiate Conference contests. The following Tuesday, the Geoducks will be back in action when the Northwest University Eagles come to CRC for another conference clash.

FOLLOW THE GEODUCKS: All Evergreen home basketball games are available via live stats and on a pay-per-view live video stream at http://portal.stretchinternet.com/evergreen/#. John Hammargren is in his fourth season as Evergreen's play-by-play announcer.

ABOUT THE GEODUCKS: Evergreen, seeking to put an end to an eight-game losing skid, will play its next four consecutive games at Costantino Recreation Center. While they are mired in a losing streak, the Geoducks continue to show signs of improvement. That was especially evident in their last game, a 70-55 road defeat to three-time defending conference regular season champion Eastern Oregon. Evergreen was tied with the Mountaineers early in the fourth quarter before seeing the hosts pull away in the final 7 ½ minutes of the game. Evergreen currently ranks as one of the best rebounding teams in the conference, grabbing an average of 4.1 more rebounds per game than its opponents. An area of continued needed improvement is turnovers where the Geoducks average 21.6 compared to just 13.2 for their opponents. Those turnover numbers, as much as anything else, have led to a scoring average disparity as Evergreen averages 60.0 points while allowing 74.8 per game. The Geoducks rank fourth in the CCC with a .420 field goal percentage, but they are shooting just .291 from three-point range and average about 3.5 made three-pointers per game. Individually, junior post Gabi Fenumiai continues to lead the team in scoring average (15.5), rebounding average (7.4), and field goal percentage (.513). All three marks rank among the top seven in the conference. Senior post Uriah Thomas tallies 11.9 points and 6.3 rebounds per game, while junior point guard Lacey Morris ranks second among CCC players with an average of 4.3 assists per game. Both Thomas and Morris rank in the top 10 in minutes played her game.

ABOUT CORBAN: The Warriors boast three of the top seven scorers in the conference, led by senior guard Jade Lowery at 17.5 points per game. She ranks second in the CCC, followed by junior forward Sadie Pilgeram, sixth with 13.1 points per game, and senior guard Julie Young, seven with a 13.0 average. Pilgeram is tied for the conference lead with an average of 8.4 rebounds per game, and she is one of the league's best three-point shooters with a .364 percentage and an average of 2.6 makes per contest. Payton Wilcox, a junior forward, averages 9.9 points and 5.2 rebounds per contest. Lowery averages a team-best 3.5 assists per game and Young is the second best foul shooter in the conference with a .926 percentage. Lowery and Pilgeram currently rank first and second in the conference with better than 36 minutes per game played. As a team, Corban leads the CCC with 125 total three-pointers made, and it ranks second with an average of 8.3 made triples per game. Still, the Warriors are being outscored by 2.9 points per game, averaging 67.9 and giving up 70.8. The team is being outrebounded by nearly two per game and they also turn the ball over 16.7 times per game compared to 14.2 for their opponents.

RECENT HISTORY: Corban swept the Geoducks last season, winning 65-51 at CRC Gymnasium and 58-44 in Salem. The previous two seasons the teams split their two games, that after the Warriors swept the Geoducks in three games, including a first-round playoff encounter, during the 2011-12 campaign.

ABOUT NORTHWEST CHRISTIAN: The Beacons, who play at Northwest University on Friday night, are a much-improved team after missing the conference playoffs last season. Probably the biggest reason for that is the front court addition of 6-4 sophomore post Hanna Mack, an Eastern Washington University transfer who averages 10.4 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game. She is joined up front by 6-1 senior post Andrea Gloss, the team's leading scorer with 11.0 points per game and a .504 shooting percentage. Gloss averages 2.0 blocks per game for the Beacons, who easily lead all CCC programs with an average of 6.1 blocks per contest. Other top players in the balanced NCU attack are sophomore guard Monique Thompson with 9.6 points and 1.9 steals per game, and senior guard Sami Pitts with 8.9 points per game. Northwest Christian averages 63.7 points per game while allowing 58.7, but despite its height up front is on the negative side in rebounding with slightly less than one rebound per game less than its opponents. Not surprisingly, given their penchant for shot blocking, the Beacons hold their opponents to .343 field goal accuracy, second best among CCC programs. They also take decent care of the ball, averaging 14.7 turnovers per game, one less than their opponents.

RECENT HISTORY: Evergreen carries a five-game winning streak against the Beacons, including 65-62 and 64-62 victories last season.

LAST WEEK: Evergreen dropped a pair of conference road games last week, falling to College of Idaho, 71-66, and to Eastern Oregon, 70-55. The Geoducks had opportunities to win both games but didn't make enough plays down the stretch. On Wednesday, Dec. 30 in Caldwell, Evergreen rallied froma 17-point deficit to within one point but could not come away with the victory. College of Idaho held its largest lead of the game at 63-46 just 25 seconds into the final quarter. The Geoducks responded by scoring 17 of the next 19 points, including 14 in a row. Evergreen 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. On New Year's Eve in La Grande, Eastern Oregon outscored Evergreen by 17 points in the final quarter to rally for the victory. Fenumiai led Evergreen with 17 points and she tied for game-high rebounding honors with nine. Elleby tallied 16 points and Thomas added 12 for the visitors.