OLYMPIA, Wash. – The Evergreen Geoducks sank eight three pointers in the second half but they couldn’t complete the comeback, falling to the Northwest Christian Beacons, 78-73, in a Cascade Conference men’s basketball game on Friday night at CRC Gymnasium in Olympia, Wash.
The Geoducks stayed with the Beacons early but went cold midway through the period, allowing Northwest Christian to build a double-digit lead. The Beacon lead grew to as many as 13 before a jumper by Marc Taylor (Boise, Idaho/Skyview HS/Edmonds CC) with four seconds left to play to put the score at 31-20 at the halftime break.
Evergreen came out of the locker room strong and cut the lead to two points with 10:51 left to play on a free throw by Cody Peters (Oak Harbor, Wash./Coupeville HS/Western Oregon Univ.) that put the score at 47-45. The Beacons pushed the lead back into double-digits with 1:58 left to play but the Geoduck continued to fight, pushing the differential back to three points with 38 seconds left to play but Evergreen couldn’t close the gap any further, falling 78-73.
The Geoducks were led by 30 points from Frankie Johnson (Renton, Wash./Hazen HS). Marc Taylor added 17 points while Dre Taylor (Seattle, Wash./Garfield HS) added 16 points to go with six assists.
Northwest Christian was led by 23 points from Coleton Baker, who earned 11 of those points from the charity stripe. Spencer Coleman added 15 points while Javonte Bird earned the double-double with 13 points and 13 assists. Forest Stolk rounded out the Geoducks in double-digit scoring, adding 10 points on the night.
Evergreen returns to action on Saturday night, hosting Corban. Tip with the Warriors is set for 7:30 p.m. at CRC Gymnasium in Olympia, Wash.