Geoducks Beat Knights on Drey's Dagger
Taylor Drey has put together one of the best scoring runs in Evergreen men's basketball history with 92 points in three Evergreen victories, but his last three points in that run not only won the game on Saturday night, it came on arguably the most improbable of the many baskets he has scored.
With Evergreen trailing visiting Warner Pacific, 85-84, following a pair of free throws by Bryce White with 7.5 seconds left, Drey took a pass from Jarrick Mitchell, pulled up from about 30 feet away and swished the game-winning shot with 1.1 seconds on the clock.
After a timeout, Warner Pacific's ensuing three-quarter court inbounds pass was batted away by Jonathan Jack-Nixon, making his best impression of Seahawks free safety Earl Thomas, and time expired.
The 87-85 Cascade Collegiate Conference victory was the fourth in a row overall for the Geoducks (5-4 overall, 2-1 CCC), while Warner Pacific (3-4, 1-2) suffered its second consecutive defeat in the conference.
Drey, the senior guard from Vancouver, scored 29 points tonight after getting 29 against Lewis & Clark on Tuesday and 34 versus Multnomah last night. He was 9-for-17 overall, including 5-for-11 from beyond the arc, and hit all six of his free throws.
Evergreen head coach Tim Malroy said the play was drawn up for point guard Mitchell to get to the free throw line and either look to dish the ball or get off a shot and have the Geoducks crash the boards in case of a miss, but instead he found Drey for the game winner.
"When the (defender) didn't get up on Taylor, I saw Taylor slow his steps down and I knew what they were going to do. I'm, okay, live and die with that. It was beautiful," he said.
The Geoducks scored the game's first eight points on consecutive three-pointers by Drey and Dalton Groenewold and a layup by Ryan Quigley, and they took their first double-digit lead less than four minutes into the contest. Though Warner Pacific whittled its deficit to two points at 25-23, Evergreen responded by opening up a 44-32 halftime lead.
That margin grew to as many as 19 points three minutes into the second half, but the Knights, a conference power, were by no means done. With Collin Malcolm scoring 18 of his 26 points in the second half, Warner Pacific took its first lead of the game at 78-76 on a layup by De'Corrius Sampson-Young with 3:07 to play. That, as it turned out, was the largest lead of the game for the Knights.
That led to the closing seconds, White's two go-ahead free throws, and Drey's final three-point dagger.
"It would have been easy for us to roll over after they took the lead," Malroy said. "This group has shown that they can come back from any deficit. We've done it down 13, down two with seven seconds left."
While Drey was outstanding with his 29 points, the Geoducks also got 18 points and 11 rebounds from Shawn Spencer and 14 points and eight boards from Ryan Quigley. The unsung hero may well have been Mitchell, who contributed 12 assists and nine points while turning the ball over just once in 35 minutes.
"I have coached him for four years and that was the best game I've seen him play," Malroy said of Mitchell. "He was phenomenal.''
The Geoducks, who finished with an incredible 25 assists on their 29 field goals, shot 43 percent overall and were perfect on 18 free throw attempts. Evergreen also enjoyed a narrow 40-38 rebounding edge.
White was outstanding for Warner Pacific with 29 points, nine rebounds and five assists, and Malcolm was equally impressive with 26 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks.