Oly Sports

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.

High school volleyball

4A state tournament
Olympia 3, Wenatchee 0 (25-13, 25-18, 25-17)
Olympia 3, Union 1 (25-18, 22-25, 25-21, 25-18)

The defending state champs looked really strong on day on and Olympia rolls into the semifinals behind a straight sets win over Wenatchee and a 3-1 win over Union. The Bears take on Mead tomorrow at 3:15 PM at Marcus Pavilion.

3A state tournament
Southridge 3, Timberline 1 (25-18, 25-12, 17-25, 25-20)
Mt Si 3, Timberline 0 (25-23, 25-21, 25-17) – Timberline eliminated

North Thurston 3, Shorewood 1 (25-21, 20-25, 26-24, 25-18)
North Thurston 3, Columbia River 2 (28-26, 23-25, 25-22, 25-27, 15-9)

North Thurston stayed alive by first beating Shoreword 3-1 in the first round and then finding a way to win in an epic second round game against Columbia River. The Rams move on to the seminfinals tomorrow. They will take on Southridge at Marcus Pavilion beginning at 1:30 PM.

2A state tournament
West Valley (Yakima) 3, Capital 1 (25-18, 17-25, 25-13, 25-23)
Capital 3, Sumner 0

Capital dropped their opening match to a strong West Valley squad but stayed alive in the consolation bracket with a straight sets win. The Cougars play at 8:30 AM against Sehome at Pierce College.

Tumwater 3, East Valley (Yakima) 0
Tumwater 3, Anacortes 2

Tumwater easily swept through East Valley in the first round but had to come back from a match point in the fifth set to eventually beat Anacortes and move into the semifinals. The T-Birds will face Colville tomorrow at 12:30 PM at Pierce College.

High school football

2A state tournament
Tumwater 45, Steilacoom 22

Christian Cummings scored four rushing touchdowns and Andrew Brown added another and Tumwater extended their winning streak to ten and moved onto the quarterfinals of the 2A state tournament with a 45-22 win over Steilacoom. The T-Birds built a 45-6 lead before Steilacoom rattled off 16 points in fourth quarter garbage time.

The T-Birds move to 10-1 on the season and will move on to face Archbishop Murphy, 45-21 winners over Bremerton, next week.

Men’s basketball

Chaminade 89, Saint Martin’s 82 – Recap from GoSwords.com
Great Falls 64, Evergreen 61 – Recap from Evergreen athletics

Eric Taylor scored 28 points on 10-of-14 shooting and three other Saint Martin’s players scored in double-digits, but it wasn’t enough as Chaminade knocked off the Saints 89-82 at the GNAC/PacWest Challenge in Monmouth, Oregon. Rei Jensen scored 13 points and Evan Coulter and Roger O’Neill each scored 12 for the Saints in the loss.

TJ Harris put Great Falls up by three with just six seconds left to play but Cody Peters’ three pointer at the buzzer missed the mark for Evergreen and the Argos held on to a 64-61 point win in the Cascade/Frontier Challenge in Spokane. KJ Hong led the Geoducks with 17 points while Peters added 15.

The three point loss is the closest the Geoducks have come to a win since a 79-72 win over PLU on November 26th, 2011 and only the second time that they have lost by less than double-digits over that span of games.

Women’s basketball

Cal Baptist 63, Saint Martin’s 50 – Recap from SMUSaints.com

Brooke Paulson scored 13 points and Chelsea Haskey added 12 more in Saint Martin’s 63-50 loss to Cal Baptist at the GNAC/PacWest Challenge in Monmouth, Oregon. The Saints trailed by just a point, 31-30, at the half but a 19-0 run by the Lancers led them to their first win of the season.