Geoducks trip Coyotes to move into semifinals

By Grant Clark | For The Olympian • Published February 26, 2009

Comments (0)

photos Photos

OLYMPIA – There were no last-second heroics this time around.

Photo Gallery:

TESC vs College of Idaho Men's Basketball Playoffs

Twice during the regular season, The Evergreen State College men's basketball team appeared headed toward a win over College of Idaho only to have the Coyotes rally late and win with a buzzer beater.

The Geoducks made sure the third time that College of Idaho was not in a position for that to happen, and credit their perimeter defense and free-throw shooting for that.

Michael Ward scored a game-high 22 points, Nick Moore chipped in 14 and Evergreen beat the visiting Coyotes 70-57 in the first round of the Cascade Conference tournament Wednesday night.

Evergreen, the fourth seed in the tournament, will play at second-seeded Eastern Oregon (23-6) on Saturday.

The winner of Saturday's game advances to the tournament final against the winner between top-seeded Oregon Tech (26-5) and sixth-seeded Northwest Christian (18-12).

The Geoducks (18-10) split with Eastern Oregon during the regular season, winning 83-70 at home Jan. 9 and losing on the road 86-76 on Feb. 14.

Evergreen coach Jeff Drinkwine is a graduate of Eastern Oregon.

In Wednesday's win over College of Idaho (16-15), Evergreen also got 13 points from Nate Menefee and a solid game off the bench from Anthony Gallagher, who finished with seven points.

"(College of Idaho) was able to comeback against us and win both games during the regular season because of our free throw shooting and their ability to knock down the 3," Drinkwine said about his team, which went 5-of-6 from the free throw line in the second half. "Tonight we were able to hit our free throws and defend their shooters late in the game. We were keeping track and they went 1-for-4 from 3s in the last few minutes. We were able to finish out the game tonight. We didn't do that in the first two meetings."

The game was delayed nearly 15 minutes as a portable scoreboard had to be used since the gym's scoreboard was rendered unusable when the board's control panel malfunctioned after a cup of water was knocked over by a loose basketball during warmups, spilling the contents onto the panel.

Next page >>