OLYMPIA, Wash. – With their playoff fate decided well before the final buzzer sounded, the Evergreen Geoducks battled with but eventually fell to the 13th-ranked Eastern Oregon Mountaineers, 95-89, in a Cascade Collegiate Conference men’s basketball game on Saturday night at CRC Gymnasium in Olympia, Wash.
In the opening period, the nationally-ranked Mounties (23-5, 14-4 CCC) got off to the quick start, leading the Geoducks (8-20, 5-13 CCC) by as many as nine early. The EOU lead hit double-digits with 8:49 left to play as Thomas McCarthy hit a three-pointer to put the score at 28-17 in favor of the Mountaineers.
Evergreen chipped away at the lead, pulling back within one point with 5:50 left to go after a 12-2 Geoduck run. The green and white tied things up with just under three minutes to go but a 14-3 EOU run put the Mounties up by 11 at halftime, 48-37.
In the second half, the Geoducks slowly but surely chipped away at the lead, tying the game up yet again with exactly 10 minutes left to play. Evergreen took the lead briefly with 2:38 left to go on a monster dunk by Larry Green (Seattle, Wash./Grays Harbor CC) but Eastern Oregon finished strong, going back up by six to earn the 95-89 win.
Evergreen was led by 18 points and 10 rebounds from Green. Freshman Mikey Hope (Tacoma, Wash./Wilson HS) added 17 while junior Johnny Sarsyz (Seattle, Wash./South Puget Sound CC) came off the bench to score 13. Junior Marice Tolliver (Tacoma, Wash./Lower Columbia CC) and Michael Brumsey (Tacoma, Wash./South Puget Sound CC) each added 10 in the losing effort.
Eastern Oregon was led by 21 points off the bench by Thomas McCarthy. Jamar Johnson chipped in 17, 11 of which came from the charity stripe, while JC Cook put up 16 for the victorious Mountaineers. EOU shot 51.7% from the field, including 11 three-pointers as they earned the second seed in next week’s CCC Tournament.
The Geoducks finish the 2010-11 season with a record of 8-20 and 5-13 in conference play, just one game out of the playoff field in ninth place.