One of my favorite sporting events of the year happens tonight: the annual Saint Martin’s/Evergreen crosstown basketball game, played this year at the CRC Gymnasium on the campus of The Evergreen State College. The fun gets underway at 6:00 PM with the women and continues at 8:00 PM with the men.

Though it isn’t a blood battle like it was in the first few years, no matter the situation, no matter if they are NAIA or NCAA, the talent on the floor, the records of the two teams, the men’s game is always fun to watch and hotly contested. The NAIA Division II Geoducks hold a 10-6 record against the NCAA Division II Saints since the Evergreen program was started in 1997. They won the first four meetings between the two teams and went 7-2 over their first nine meetings. But Saint Martin’s has won the last two games including an easy 75-61 victory last year and a 71-63 win in 2010 in one of the more intense games that I have witnessed between the two teams.

In their last meeting, it took Evergreen over ten minutes to score their first point allowing the Saints to build an 18-0 in the meantime. The Geoducks cut the lead to eleven a few times but never truly threatened to cut it any deeper or give the Saints any kind of trouble. Of players still on the roster, Roger O’Neill scored 16 points and Eric Taylor added 10 for the Saints while the only two remaining Geoducks from that game, Travis Wagner and Elzie Dickens, each scored six points.

The women’s game hasn’t produced as much of a rivalry over the years, mainly because one team has dominated the competition. The Saints are 15-1 all-time against the Geoducks, the lone Evergreen win coming in 2006. Last season, the Saints knocked off the Geoducks 54-38 behind ten points and 13 rebounds from Chelsea Haskey. Evergreen was led by Jessica Edge’s 14 points and Danielle Swain’s 11 points and 14 boards.

If you can’t make it to the CRC tonight, you can watch the games live on Evergreen athletics page or I will be tweeting plenty of updates throughout the game on the @OlySportsBlog Twitter page.