Nick Moore had 21 points and seven rebounds for Evergreen, which earned the right to host Tuesday night's CCC championship game vs. Warner Pacific.
Evergreen Upsets No. 8 OIT; Geoducks to Host WPC Tuesday for Title
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. -- The Evergreen State College made it two years in a row winning at Oregon Tech in the conference playoffs, this year moving on to the CCC championship game with a 93-76 win at Danny Miles Court. The Owls end their regular season with a 26-6 mark, while Evergreen is now 21-7 and one win from a berth to the NAIA Division II national championships.
Evergreen, the No. 3 seed, will host another upset winner in the semis, fourth-seeded Warner Pacific, in Tuesday night's CCC championship game. Tip-off in Olympia is set for 7:30 p.m.
It was a see-saw game for most of the first period with eight ties, the last at 35-35 with 4:54 remaining before the half. A 15-8 Evergreen run finished the first half and put the Geoducks up seven at the intermission, 50-43, where they would not trail again.
Evergreen was able to bump the lead to nine points at the 16:07 mark of the second half, but Tech was able to trim the lead to only three points, 65-62, with 11:11 to go. In a matter of two minutes, the Geoducks strung together an 11-0 run to push the lead to 76-62 and not allow Tech to get within double digits for the remainder of the game.
All-American Ryan Fiegi (Sr. Medford, OR), playing in his last home game at Oregon Tech, scored a game-high 27 points with six rebounds and seven assists. Jguwon Hogges (Jr. Atwater, CA) followed with 19 points and three assists, with Josh Wetzler (Jr. Perth, AUS) grabbing a career-high 18 rebounds to go along with his six points. Christian Cavanaugh (Jr. Mill Valley, CA) finished in double figures with 10 points.
The Geoducks had four players reach double figure points with Nate Menefee and Nick Moore both netting 21 points in the win. Moore grabbed seven rebounds and Menefee handed out six assists. Julio Feliciano and Marcus Whittaker each scored 13 points for TESC.
The Owls gained an at-large berth to the NAIA Division II national championships and it is now a waiting game, as they will not know their opponent until the tournament pairing come out on March 5th. Tech will begin tournament play either March 12 or March 13.