The women’s basketball team’s season ended last week in the first round of the playoffs, falling to #3 in the Cascade Conference Oregon Tech Owls. This year’s Geoducks were the 6th Evergreen women’s basketball team to ever make the playoffs–a notable achievement for a team loaded with talent.
Going into halftime the game remained tight with Evergreen trailing the Owls 21-26, but in the second half the Owls showed why they did so well in conference play this season. Oregon Tech quickly ran off a 7-1 advantage against the Geoducks to start the second period of play. After a brief scoring spree by Evergreen, the Owls went off again, pushing its lead to almost 20 and coasted to a 63-44 win.
In her final game as a Geoduck, Jessica Edge put in an efficient 11 points. Along with Sammi Clark’s 13, they were the only two Greeners to break double digits.
Though the season may be over sooner than the team would hope for, there are unquestionably great successes to be proud of this season. The Geoducks were picked in the preseason poll to finish 9th, but ended the season in a three way tie for 6th in the playoffs, outplaying the preseason expectation from outside the school.
Clark and senior Danielle Swain were also among those mentioned in the postseason awards for the Cascade Conference. Swain racked up a First Team All-Conference award, while Clark received Honorable Mention.
Overall, with many players returning next season, the Geoducks now have great experience to draw upon going forward. Highest of all, the final regular season game in which the Geoducks needed a win to make the playoffs and came back from a halftime deficit to defeat Northwest and force its way into the playoffs.
By David Lukashok
