Mike Salsbury/The Olympian
Mike Parker (right) of Evergreen knocks the ball away from Northwest's Adam Swinyard on Wednesday night.

Geoducks make history

Evergreen notches first playoff win

GAIL WOOD THE OLYMPIAN

OLYMPIA -- Before his players left the locker room before the game, Coach John Barbee wanted to make it clear who they were playing Wednesday.

It wasn't Northwest College, a surprise, last-minute playoff entry. No, Barbee made it clear The Evergreen State College was playing history.

"Coach called us together before the game and told us we were setting a legacy," Evergreen guard Greg Johnson said. "He told us we were setting a standard. So, we knew we had to come out with some intensity."

It was all the pep talk sixth-ranked Evergreen needed.

Now playing for the ages, the Geoducks had the intensity Barbee wanted, beating an outmanned, outhustled and outshot Northwest team 74-50 in the first round of the Cascade Conference playoffs.

Evergreen's first-ever playoff victory extends its win streak to 20 games, the NAIA's longest this season.

"We're setting standards," Barbee said. "It didn't matter what the score was. We wanted to keep the intensity up. We wanted to just clean up our game and get better."

Against a team Evergreen had beaten by 27 and 13 points already, the Geoducks (25-5) could have come out overconfident. But instead, they sank their first four 3-point attempts, took a 12-2 lead and continued to pull away.

Northwest, bothered by Evergreen's pressure defense, shot just 19 percent (5-for-26) in the first half and trailed 40-16. By halftime, Mike Parker, Evergreen's 6-foot-6 pogo-stick forward, nearly had as many blocks (4) as Northwest had baskets (5).

"It didn't matter who we were playing," Evergreen guard Andre Stewart said. "All that mattered was how we played."

With just under eight minutes left, Evergreen took its largest lead of the game on Stewart's 3-pointer, giving his team a 71-33 lead, a 38-point bulge. Barbee then emptied his bench and his team scored just three points in the final eight minutes.

"We need them to execute better," Stewart said about the backups. "At nationals, we're going to need them off the bench."

Northwest, which eked into the playoffs when Cascade College was eliminated Tuesday because it used an ineligible player, never found its shooting touch and shot just 23 percent (17-for-72).

"Defense wins championships," Johnson said.

With four players in double figures, Quincy Wilder led Evergreen with 20 points, Parker added 15 , Stewart had 12 and Johnson 11. Wilder, playing on a sprained ankle that hasn't completed healed, scored 11 points in a six-minute spurt of the first half.

In Wednesday's other playoff games, Western Oregon defeated Concordia 76-71, Southern Oregon topped Albertson 103-101 in double overtime and Oregon Tech beat Warner Pacific.

Evergreen, already assured of a trip to nationals as the Cascade Conference champion, faces Southern Oregon in the semifinals at home on Saturday.

"They're a very physical team," Barbee said. "They won't back down."

With just 26 seconds left in the game, Evergreen's motley 10-piece pep band, playing pots, pans and a trumpet, drew a technical after repeated warnings about playing as the game was in progress. It continued to play, drawing a second technical and was ejected from the gym.

The announcer warned that a third technical could lead to a forfeiture. The band left quietly.

"I love to see the fans at the game," Barbee said. "I love to hear the band. They're enjoying it just as much as we are. But obviously we don't want that to happen again.

"If it was a two-point game and we got a technical like that, it could cost us the game."

For related stories go to the Local Sports section.

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