The Lady Geoducks struggled over the break to a 3-7 record during the holidays along with a loss to Central Washington in an exhibition game on 12/14. December got off to a bad start with a five game losing streak as Evergreen dropped games to Montana State University-Northern and Northwest Christian at Eastern Oregon, College of Idaho, and Warner Pacific. Though they were blown out playing against Idaho and Eastern Oregon, many of the losses came in close games where the Lady Geoducks were still impressive in defeat.
MSU-Northern had to fight its way out of an eight point deficit to scrape by with a two point victory as both teams were unable to score for the final 2:26. Northwest Christian escaped with a 43-40 win in a defensive battle in which both teams faced each other into over 15 turnovers apiece.
In the final game of Winter Break, Warner Pacific just managed to pull out a 54-51 win over Evergreen in spite of the Lady Geoducks hammering the Lady Knights on the offensive glass to the tune of 19 offensive rebounds. This was lead by guard Jessica Denmon with a 13-11 double-double, 5 of those rebounds coming from gathering up Geoduck misses to extend possession. In spite of measuring in at 5’ 6”, tied for second shortest on the team, Denmon is gathering 6.4 rebounds per game, good for second-most on the team, along with being the most accurate three point shooter in the starting rotation.
It wasn’t all losses for the Lady Geoducks over the holidays, though. On December 17th with Corban coming to Olympia, Evergreen recorded its fifth ever victory over the Lady Warriors 65-62. Riding a big game from guard Sammi Clark leading the team with 15 points, 6 assists, and 5 steals, Evergreen bounced back from an 0-8 deficit to start the game, and took the lead off a jumper by guard Britnee Williams late in the first period and never looked back.
The Lady Geoducks beat Linfield College 55-50 in its final game of 2012 behind double digit scoring nights from forward Danielle Swain, Clark, and guard Sadee Jones. Swain, the team’s leading scorer on the season, scored a team high 18 points in spite of foul trouble and only playing 25 minutes. In the first game of the new year, Swain had her strongest game of the season, helping Evergreen come back from a halftime deficit to beat Concordia 58-52, with 21 points and 13 rebounds as the team grinded out a chippy win in which it worked its way to the foul line 22 times in the second half.
With the new quarter starting, the Lady Geoducks are currently two games into a four game road trip in Oregon. After two tough losses against Southern Oregon and Oregon Institute of Technology, Evergreen hopes to bounce back against Northwest Christian and then try and score another victory over Corban. Following the road trip, the Lady Geoducks will finally be back in Olympia to host College of Idaho and then Eastern Oregon back to back on the 25th and 26th.
By David Lukashok
