Gray, Jones Lead Geoducks Past Northwest
OLYMPIA – Brittany Gray and Sadee Jones scored 18 points each on Saturday night to lead The Evergreen State College to a 72-63 Cascade Collegiate Conference women's basketball victory over the visiting Northwest University Eagles at CRC Gymnasium.
With their second consecutive victory, the Geoducks improve to 8-4 overall and 2-3 in the conference. Northwest is now 9-6 overall and also 2-3 in the CCC.
When Jordan Asher knocked down the second of her six three-point baskets about four minute in, the Eagles held their largest lead of the game at 10-7. Karina Gee tied it for Evergreen with a three-pointer of her own – she drained three during the contest – at the 13:39 mark, and when Sadee Jones hit a layup about 40 seconds later the Geoducks took the lead for good.
With Jones scoring 10 points and grabbing seven rebounds, the Geoducks built a 31-23 lead at the intermission.
The hosts added on to their lead in the early moments of the second period, and in fact took their largest advantage at 37-25 when Jones hit another layup three minutes into the final period.
With both teams battling hard for every basket, Northwest pulled within five points at one stage, only to see Evergreen go back on top 58-47 on a pair of Randi Boseman free throws with 6:08 to play.
Northwest had one more run, however, whittling its deficit to just two points, 63-61, when Asher nailed another long ball with 1:44 remaining in the contest. From that point on, however, the Geoducks iced the game at the foul line, hitting nine of their final 10 attempts, including 5-for-6 by Boseman.
"Randi Boseman took care of us as a point guard should," Evergreen head coach Jennifer Schooler said. "She made some mistakes but found a way to clean it up."
LaNiecia Weatherspoon joined Gray and Jones in double figures with 12 points, while Boseman finished 7-for-8 at the charity stripe for nine points. Jones had a strong game on the boards with 11, giving her six double-doubles this season. She helped lead the Geoducks to a 36-26 advantage in that category. Boseman finished with a team-high five assists as the Geoducks passed out 14 assists on their 23 total baskets.
Evergreen shot 48 percent from the field (23-for-48), including an impressive 50 percent (10-for-20) from beyond the three-point line. Gray was 3-for-5 and Gee 3-for-4 from long range.
Asher was solid for the Eagles, going 6-for-10 from beyond the arc on her way to a game-high 19 points. Charmaine Bradford scored all 13 of her points in the second half, and Charity Degman had a strong game off of the bench with 13 points. Hannah Carlson had a double-double for the visitors with 10 points and 10 rebounds, while Bradford chipped in with five assists and four steals for the Eagles.
The Geoducks will finish the remainder of the 13-game conference schedule without Gray. The senior post was playing her final game for Evergreen this evening because she has met the NAIA maximum 10 semesters for her four seasons of competition.
"How do we live life after Brittany Gray?," Schooler asked. "I think we're going to be fine. The athletes are realizing that, if they do it together, they are going to be okay. Everybody's got to be a Swiss army knife and everybody has to be able to do multiple things at multiple times no matter what. If we stay together we're going to be fine."
The Geoducks return to conference action at 5:30 p.m. next Friday when they Southern Oregon in Ashland.