COMING UP: With a Cascade Collegiate Conference men's basketball playoff berth still a possibility – though a narrow one – The Evergreen State College (8-18 overall, 5-13 CCC) hosts third-place Warner Pacific (19-8, 14-4) on Friday and last-place Multnomah (5-22, 1-17) on Saturday in its final regular season games.

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.

SENIOR NIGHT: Directly following the conclusion of the women's game and prior to the men's game warmup, five The Evergreen State College seniors will be honored. That group includes Alix Hernandez, Landon Rushton, Frankie Johnson, Donald Terry and Brock Otis.

PLAYOFF SCENARIO: The Geoducks are still in the postseason tournament hunt but need wins against Warner Pacific on Friday and Multnomah on Saturday and losses by Northwest to those same teams on alternating nights in order to secure the eighth-and-final berth. An Evergreen loss or a Northwest win in any of this weekend's games eliminates the Geoducks from the playoffs. Evergreen, mired in its longest losing streak of the season at seven games, is in ninth place in the CCC standings with a 5-13 record, while Northwest is eighth with a 7-11 mark. Evergreen defeated Northwest in both conference games and holds the tiebreaker over the Eagles, so a tie for eighth place goes in the Geoducks' favor.

ABOUT THE GEODUCKS: Junior guard Taylor Drey and senior forward Brock Otis have taken over the scoring load for the Geoducks in recent games. After scoring in double figures in just three of 21 previous contests, Drey has tallied at least 25 points in three of the last five, averaging 21.4 during that stretch. That has brought his season-long scoring average to 9.3 points per game, and his conference average to 9.9. Otis, who scored a career-high 33 last Sunday at Walla Walla, has hit double figures in five of the last six games, improving his league scoring average from 14.1 points to 15.6 points per game. Senior guard/forward Alix Hernandez, has seen his numbers drop in recent weeks while playing with a bum ankle, but he still averages 12.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 4.3 assists in conference action. As the team the Geoducks score 82.2 points while allowing 87.8 in conference action, and they are an average of 4.5 rebounds in the hole.

A SIGN OF IMPROVEMENT: Evergreen's 8-18 overall record is the program's best since the 2010-11 team finished with an 8-20 mark.

FRANKIE JOHNSON VS. FRANKY JOHNSON: Friday night's game will feature a head-to-head match-up between Evergreen senior guard Frankie Johnson and Warner Pacific senior guard Franky Johnson. Evergreen's Frankie, at 5-8 and a product of Hazen High School in Renton, has started all 26 games and averages 8.1 points per game. Warner Pacific's Franky, at 6-0 and originally from Fairfield, Calif., has played in 24 of his team's 27 games, starting 22, and averages 11.7 points per game.

MORE ABOUT EVERGREEN'S FRANKIE: Of the five seniors on this year's team, Frankie Johnson is the only one who has played all four years at Evergreen. With 98 starts in 102 games to date, he has scored 929 points, an average of 9.1 per game. While he won't reach the 1000-point mark, his steady impact through four seasons is unquestioned.

ABOUT WARNER PACIFIC: It would take a major upset for the Geoducks to knock off Warner Pacific, which has won 11 straight games - by an average of 21.6 points - in the series. The Knights come into CRC Gymnasium with a five-game win streak, including a 78-72 home court upset over No. 8-ranked Northwest Christian in their last game. They are the No. 1-ranked offensive team in the league with an average of 88.4 points per game, and are No. 3 in defense, allowing 75.6 per game. Their point differential of +12.1 per game is tops in the conference, and they are second in rebounding margin with 5.0 more per game than their foes. Warner Pacific ranks in the league's top four in steals, assists and blocks per game. The talented and deep team is led by senior guard Taylor Young and his 18.2 points per game. Senior guard Earl Jones contributes 15.8 points, 5.9 assists and a conference-best 2.3 steals per game, while junior forward De'Jon Bowman averages 13.3 points and 10.2 rebounds while shooting .647 from the field.

THE FIRST TIME: Warner Pacific defeated Evergreen, 89-72, the first time these teams played each other on Dec. 5 in Portland. Frankie Johnson scored 14 points and Brock Otis notched a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Geoducks.
 
ABOUT MULTNOMAH: The Lions have recorded just one win in their first 18 conference games and play at Northwest on Friday night. They set a NAIA national record with 71 three-point attempts (they made 22) in last Saturday night's loss to Corban. Blake Updike, a senior guard, is among the league's top scorers with 20.9 points per game, and he averages 2.8 made three-pointers per contest. Ben Grandle, a 6-5 freshman guard, scores 11.9 points per game and gets almost all of those from beyond the three-point arc. Junior center Thomas Simien averages 11.6 points and 6.4 rebounds per game, while senior forward Jordan Paris contributes 7.7 rebounds and 3.9 assists per contest. Multnomah ranks last in the conference in scoring defense, giving up 95.3 points per game (Evergreen is second-to-last), is last in scoring differential, being outscored by 21.9 points per conference contest, and is last with a negative 9.9 in the rebounding margin list.

THE FIRST TIME: Alix Hernandez racked up 21 points and 16 rebounds as Evergreen opened its conference season on Dec. 4 with a 97-84 win over Multnomah in Portland.

WALLA WALLA 83, EVERGREEN: Brock Otis poured in 33 points and Taylor Drey added 20 on Sunday afternoon but it wasn't enough to prevent Evergreen from dropping an 83-80 conference decision to the host Walla Walla University Wolves.