T-Bird Upset Bid Falls Short Versus Evergreen State
BOX SCORE
PORTLAND, Ore. - The Cascade men's basketball team lost to Evergreen State, 88-80 last night in conference play.
Evergreen State, currently ranked 16th in the nation and fresh off their 82-68 upset victory over the defending NAIA Div. II National Champions Oregon Tech, came to town Friday night and for the first ten minutes of action it was obvious that their top-twenty ranking was well deserved.
Paced by Nathan Menefee and Julio Feliciano, the Geoducks stormed out to a 36-18 lead at the 10 minute mark in the first half.
But the Thunderbirds answered. Baskets by Tommy Allen, Josh Brown, and Ryan Barker ignited a 15-3 run to end the half with Cascade trailing by six, 33-39.
"Our bench is deeper than previous years, sometimes that is a problem trying to get everyone minutes; but it is a good problem to have and our bench did a great job maintaining pace as the game unfolded tonight." Head Coach Anthony Baugher stated. "Ryan Barker came of the bench and hit some big shots for us tonight, some clutch shots that kept us in the game."
The second half was more intense than the first as the T-Birds were able to cut the lead down to two on several occasions but were never able to get over the hump and were forced to foul to stop the clock with 1:31 remaining. "We knew that we were going to have our hands full with this team, they are extremely athletic and well-coached," Baugher stated. "We wanted to keep it close and make a run at them late, unfortunately we came up short. Our guys played them tough, we are very proud of the team effort we received tonight."
Cascade was paced by Ben Pawlak's 17 points and 3 assists. Cornell Littlejohn had 14 points, 4 rebounds and 3 steals. Erving Adams added 13 points and 4 rebounds. "Erv (Adams) truly was a force today on the block," Assistant Coach Adam Decker stated. "He seems to improve with each outing, as his minutes increase so will his numbers."
Evergreen was paced by Nathan Menefee's 25 points.
The Thunderbirds will return to the hardwood and conference play on Saturday night, January 3rd against Northwest University, game time is 7:30pm.