BY JAMES GUSTCH
Arguably the best season in Evergreen Women’s Basketball history came to a bitter end on Tuesday night. The fifth place Geoducks fell to fourth place Southern Oregon University in the Cascade Collegiate Conference quarterfinal, by a score of 70-80.
Sammi Clark had 22 points in her final game in green, while fellow senior Jessica Denmon added 12 points and 14 rebounds. Head Coach Monica Heuer ended her 13 year tenure in the captain’s chair, and she saved the best for last. Ending the regular season at 14-11, the team captured the highest win percentage in program history and tied the best conference record at 10-8. Evergreen was seeking its first playoff win in school history, and could never quite contain the high-powered offense of Southern Oregon.
The Geoducks started the game well, Clark put Evergreen up by five on a jumper five minutes into the game. Southern Oregon set the tone late however and the Geoducks were held without a field goal for the final six minutes of the first, getting outscored 4-11 and entering the locker room staring at a 28-37 deficit.
They started the second half blazing as Denmon made three consecutive buckets in less than two minutes to cut the gap to three. SOU would not be silenced though, and they scored the next 12 points for a 49-34 advantage with 14 minutes left. The Geoducks trailed by 16 with under two minutes left and were able to get some baskets in garbage time for a respectable final score.
Evergreen was outrebounded 41-56 and managed just five assists. They fell to 0-7 in the playoffs. Coach Monica Heuer stood at the helm for all but four seasons of Geoduck basketball history.
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