Raiders Use Strong Inside Game to Beat Evergreen
OLYMPIA – Carly Meister scored 20 points and grabbed 11 rebounds Saturday night to lead the visiting Southern Oregon Raiders to a 74-58 Cascade Collegiate Conference women's basketball victory over the Evergreen Geoducks at CRC Gymnasium.
With the victory, the No. 13-ranked Raiders improve to 21-3 overall and 12-3 in the conference. Evergreen is now 13-8 overall and 7-7 in conference play.
Meister had her way against the interior of the Evergreen defense, shooting 10-for-14 from the field, and five of her 11 boards came on the offensive end. Her teammate, Alexi Smith, was effective inside as well with 13 points and eight rebounds. Joining those two in double figures for Southern Oregon was Tiana Bradford with 11 points.
Natasha Trinidad had arguably her best game of the season for the Geoducks with 18 points, including 5-for-7 shooting from the field and 8-for-9 at the foul line. She drove to the basket and converted several times against the taller Raiders.
"Natasha Trinidad had a great game for us," Evergreen head coach Jennifer Schooler said. "She attacked the bucket and gave us some hope."
LaNiecia Weatherspoon added 12 points for the Geoducks, who also got 13 rebounds and nine points from Sadee Jones.
It was surprising that the Geoducks trailed by only 12 points, 33-21, at the halftime break. They dug themselves a big hole in the first half with poor shooting, hitting just 21 percent on 6-for-29 shooting. A number of those misses came on open looks that the Geoducks have been making in recent games. When they missed most of the rebounds went to the taller Raiders, who pulled down 27 boards in the opening half compared to just 15 for the hosts.
What kept the Geoducks in the game through the opening 20 minutes was 9-for-11 foul shooting, including 7-for-8 by Trinidad. In addition, the Geoducks harassed the visitors into 10 of their 16 turnovers in the first half.
Southern Oregon, meanwhile, did what it does best, getting 19 first half points combined from front line players Meister and Smith. That duo also combined for 12 rebounds.
The Raiders added to their halftime margin, eventually stretching out their advantage to 24 points at 57-33 on a layup by Courtney West at about the midway point of the final period.
Evergreen scored 17 of the next 22 points to get within 12 points but could get no closer as the Raiders closed out their season sweep of the Geoducks.
Southern Oregon shot 29-for-63 from the field for 46 percent and they enjoyed a significant 50-35 rebounding edge. Evergreen warmed up from the field in the second half and finished shooting 20-for-63, or 32 percent. Both teams passed the ball well, Southern Oregon finishing with 18 assists and Evergreen getting 13.
"I think the biggest thing tonight is there were pockets where we didn't do things together, and you just can't do that with No. 13," Schooler said. "I thought we fought our tails off, he put his starters back in, and we finished Geoducks style."
Evergreen makes its final conference regular season road trip next weekend when it plays Warner Pacific on Friday and Concordia on Saturday.