Hernandez, Powell Lead Geoducks Past Lutes
Alex Hernandez and Danny Powell poured in 30 points each and Powell added 14 rebounds Friday night to lead The Evergreen State College to a 93-83 non-conference men's basketball victory over the visiting Pacific Lutheran Lutes at CRC Gymnasium.
The Geoducks (5-6) topped their victory total from a season ago in just their 11th game of the season in beating the Lutes (7-2) by 10 points for the second straight year.
Brandon Lester scored 23 points, Dylan Foreman 21 and Bryce Miller added 16 and seven rebounds for the Lutes.
Evergreen led through the majority of the first half, taking its largest advantage at 23-17 on a jumper by Hernandez at the 10:02 mark. The Lutes, who led about six five minutes into the game, regained a 29-27 advantage on an Erik Swartout layup that came with 5:24 to play in the half. PLU was on top, 41-38, at the half.
At that point Hernandez had already scored 18 points for the Geoducks, while on the other end of the floor Foreman filled it up from three-point range, hitting all four of his attempts in scoring 16 first half points.
Foreman was just one of several PLU players who showed uncanny accuracy from long range as the team shot 69 percent on 9-for-13 accuracy.
"They shot an unbelievable percentage from three in that first half and I was hoping that maybe they would come back to earth a little bit," Evergreen head coach Tim Malroy said. "We were boarding and getting some turnovers which kept us in the game early." The Geoducks also struggled from long range, hitting just three of their 18 attempts from beyond the arc.
Pacific Lutheran did indeed cool down from beyond the arc in the second half, hitting just 2-for-12. And with the game on the line, it was the Geoducks who came through, particularly at the foul line where they were 17-for-18 in the final 20 minutes.
Pacific Lutheran opened up its lead to six points, 66-57, after a pair of Lester free throws with 10:21 on the clock. That's when Evergreen's Brock Otis took over. The 6-3 senior forward scored nine straight points to get the home team back on top, 67-63, with 8:27 to play. Otis finished the game with 17 points as Evergreen's triple threat of Hernandez, Powell and Otis combined for 77 of the team's 93 points.
With Hernandez and Powell taking over the scoring load over the next several minutes, Evergreen opened up what appeared to be a comfortable 81-68 margin with 2:20 on the clock.
The Lutes, however, were not done. They scored 10 of the next 12 points, including a big three-pointer by Kasey Johnson who had just entered the game, and it was an 83-79 score in Evergreen's favor with 53 seconds to play.
Evergreen iced the game at the free throw line, however, hitting all eight of its tries down the stretch. Jarrick Mitchell nailed a pair, followed by four straight from Hernandez, and Powell added two more with 12 seconds to go to put the game away.
"In the second half we exploited some mismatches and got some easy buckets which really got us rolling, and our defense really picked up," Malroy said.
Evergreen shot 47 percent from the field (33-for-70) and an outstanding 95 percent at the free throw line (20-for-21). The rebounds were even at 37 apiece with Powell getting 13 of his 14 boards on the defensive end. Mitchell led the Geoducks with five assists and Hernandez had four steals.
The Lutes shot 45 percent overall (28-for-62) and ended up at 44 percent from three-point range (11-for-25). They had 17 assists with Swartout and Miller getting five apiece.
Evergreen returns to Cascade Collegiate Conference action next Saturday, Dec. 19, when it hosts Southern Oregon at 7:30 p.m.