Ford Drives Northwest Past Evergreen
Hussayn Ford scored 25 points and grabbed 14 rebounds to lead the visiting Northwest University Eagles to an 81-62 Cascade Collegiate Conference men's basketball win over the Evergreen Geoducks on Tuesday night inside Costantino Recreation Center.
Ford scored 19 of his points and took down nine of his rebounds in the second half as Northwest (13-15 overall, 5-11 CCC) pulled away from a 39-32 halftime lead by shooting 55 percent in the second half, including several rim-rattling dunks.
A trio of Evergreen seniors playing their final home game led the Geoducks. Malik Redmond scored 16 points, Ryan Quigley added 15 and Dalton Groenewold finished with 13 and a team-best six rebounds.
Northwest took the early lead before an Evergreen scoring run, capped by a jumper from Redmond and a three-pointer from Groenewold, put the home team on top by a 15-11 score with 13:42 left in the opening period. The Eagles scored 17 of the next 20 points over the next four minutes, including a pair of three-pointers each by Ryan Ricks and Jase Paulsen, to grab a 28-18 advantage.
The second half belonged to Ford, who dominated the Geoducks inside in rolling to his impressive double-double. Joining him in double figures for the Eagles were Alex Smith with 12 points and Ricks with 10.
The Geoducks shot 47 percent overall but just 29 percent (4-for-14) from beyond the three-point line. Northwest hit 53 percent of its attempts and also enjoyed a huge 39-23 rebounding advantage.