COMING UP: The Evergreen State College (9-10 overall, 7-8 CCC) travels east of the Cascade mountain range this weekend for games against College of Idaho (6-14, 6-8) on Friday and Eastern Oregon (21-2, 14-0) on Saturday. Both games tip off at 5:30 p.m. local time, meaning the game against College of Idaho in Caldwell, Idaho, will start at 4:30 p.m. Pacific Time.
COLLEGE OF IDAHO LIVE STATS AND VIDEO STREAM: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/yoteathletics/.
EASTERN OREGON LIVE STATS AND VIDEO STREAM: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/eou/.
PLAYOFF POSSIBILITIES: With five games remaining in the regular season, the Geoducks are closing in on one of eight Cascade Collegiate Conference postseason tournament berths. The Geoducks currently sit in fifth place in the conference standings, but there are three teams bunched within a game of that position. Evergreen could wrap up a playoff berth this week, or it may take until the final weekend of the season. That also means, of course, that the Geoducks still have work to do in order to be assured of playing in the postseason. The playoffs start on Tuesday, Feb. 20, with quarterfinal games, seeds 1-4 hosting seeds 5-8 in reverse order. The semifinal round, hosted by the two highest remaining seeds, is slated for Friday, Feb. 23, and the championship game is scheduled for Monday, Feb. 26, again at the home court of the highest remaining seed. Evergreen last qualified for the conference postseason tournament during the 2014-15 when, for the only time in program history, it hosted a playoff game. The Geoducks, then the No. 4 seed, lost a close game to No. 5 Oregon Tech, which went on to win the postseason tournament title.
GEODUCKS BY THE NUMBERS: Evergreen is averaging 68.2 points and allowing 69.9 per game in conference play and is negative 5.1 rebounds per game compared to its opponents. Cayla Jones, who leads the team in overall scoring this season, tops the team in conference scoring at 13.7 points per game, followed closely by Alexcis Higginbotham with 13.1 and Jahpera McEachin with 11.1. Deidra Miller is the team's rebounding leader in conference action with 6.0 per game, followed by Higginbotham with 5.9. Higginbotham is among the conference leaders in three-point shooting percentage at 51.9, while Kaelin Williams-Kennedy comes in at 44.1 percent, and McEachin is near the top in free throw accuracy at 84.5 percent. Jones averages 3.5 assists and McEachin contributes 3.1 per conference game.
ABOUT COLLEGE OF IDAHO: The Coyotes have been on a run of late, winning five of their past seven games since losing at Evergreen, 56-53, back on Jan. 6. All five of those wins, however, have come against conference opponents with sub .500 records, while the losses have come against teams with plus .500 records. College of Idaho averages 56.7 points and allows 63.2 in conference games and is negative 4.7 rebounds per game. Alyssa Case leads the team in conference scoring with 11.1 points per game, while Lindy Westendorf averages 6.9 rebounds per contest. Jocelyn Cook-Cox is among the rebounding leaders with 6.1 per game and she shoots 44.7 percent from the field in conference contests.
THE FIRST TIME: Evergreen led by 23 points in the third quarter and by 19 entering the final period but had to survive a fourth quarter slump in beating College of Idaho, 56-53, on Jan. 6 inside Costantino Recreation Center. The Geoducks seemed to have the game well in hand before shooting 0-for-10 and turning the ball over five times in the fourth quarter. Cayla Jones hit a pair of free throws with 4.5 seconds remaining for Evergreen's only points of the period and a late three-pointer by the visitors was off the mark. Jones scored 20 points and Deidra Miller added 14 for the Geoducks.
THE SERIES: Evergreen has just seven wins against 35 losses in the all-time series against College of Idaho. The Coyotes are 19-3 all-time against the Geoducks in Caldwell. Evergreen has never swept a two-game season series from College of Idaho.
ABOUT EASTERN OREGON: The Mountaineers, who host Northwest University on Friday night, have won 14 in a row and are ranked No. 7 in this week's NAIA Division II Top 25 national poll. The statisticss certainly support those lofty achievements. Eastern averages 87.4 points and allows 55.2 in conference games, and it leads all of the CCC in point differential (plus 32.2 per game), free throw shooting (82.6 percent), field goal shooting (50.7 percent), three-point shooting (47.6 percent, which is better than any other team's overall percentage) and assists per game (22.1). Senior Maya Ah You-Dias tops the league with 18.5 points per conference game and 93.9 percent free throw shooting in addition to shooting 54.0 percent overall and averaging 5.9 rebounds and 3.7 assists per contest. Senior Payton Parrish leads all CCC players with 3.2 made three-pointers per game in averaging 13.8 points and she also averages 6.6 rebounds. Yet another senior, Stormee Van Belle, contributes 13.8 points and 6.3 rebounds per game, while Maren Herrud averages 11.3 points and shoots a league-best 55.6 percent from three-point range. Eastern Oregon, in fact, has four of the top eight overall percentage shooters and seven of the league's top nine in three-point accuracy (the other two are Evergreen's Higginbotham and Williams-Kennedy).
THE FIRST TIME: Visiting Eastern Oregon led 63-40 at the half and went on to a 94-68 win on Jan. 5. Cayla Jones led the Geoducks with 16 points, followed by Cierra Moss with 14, Alexcis Higginbotham with 13 and Jahpera McEachin with 10.
RECENT RESULTS: Eastern Oregon has a 20-game winning streak over Evergreen with the last Geoducks victory coming by a 67-63 score on Feb. 16, 2008.
CORBAN 66, EVERGREEN 64: The visiting Warriors scored the game-winning three-point play with 0.4 seconds remaining in taking the victory last Friday night inside Costantino Recreation Center. Evergreen led by 12 points late in the third period but could not hold on to the lead. Jahpera McEachin led the home team with 13 points.
NORTHWEST CHRISTIAN 74, EVERGREEN 71: The Geoducks mounted a furious fourth quarter rally, coming back from a 21-point third period deficit against the No. 16-ranked Beacons last Saturday night at the CRC, only to fall just short. Evergreen had a potential game-tying three-point attempt from about 35 feet miss to the right at the buzzer. Alexcis Higginbotham had a great game for the Geoducks with 22 points and nine rebounds.
