Women Face Dissapointing Loss Followed by Slight Win

Despite our nine-point half time lead, the first period against Evergreen State was completely dissatisfying. The way we were playing defense and the way were shooting the ball made it feel like we should have been up by a lot more.

Our tough defense held the Geoducks to just 17 first-half points, holding them to under 30% shooting from both the field and three point line. Who knew the second half was going to be even more disappointing?! Losing by five to a team that has never beat Oregon Tech since the women’s program was brought back is as low as they come.

I must say, Evergreen has been playing very well lately—they just couldn’t come away with a win. They finally did Friday night against us. It’s not fun being the team they finally beat, but it happens. What is weird is that if you look at the stats they are almost completely identical (just like the men’s), except the rebounds. They had nine more total rebounds than us, and I think that is what cost us the game. In a game like that rebounds are extremely important, and they beat us 21-32 on the boards. They had six more offensive boards, which are the critical ones to get in a tight game. Six offensive boards probably gave them 6 more points which gave them the win. It was tough losing to a team that we beat by 20 in the first round of conference play.

Waiting for coaches to come in and give us the post-game talk was the longest wait ever. Everyone was mad, or sad and nobody was talking to one another. On top of that, the coaches took a lot longer than they usually do so we were all sitting there in silence, waiting for Coach Geenleaf to come in and chew us out. To my surprise, he did no such thing. He handled it calmly and told us to remember that game for future reference. The game left a bitter taste in our mouths and we came ready to play Saturday night.

We knew Northwest had put up a good fight against Southern Oregon the night before. This meant we could not take them lightly or something similar to Friday night’s game might result. They had good shooters and some good rebounders. A girl that we thought had quit was now back. Her job is to shoot three’s. She did just that. She was 4-10 from behind the arc and helped her team shoot an unlikely 48% from 3-point range.

We held a not-so-comfortable seven point lead at half time. The rest of the game was neck and neck. After the seven point win, Meagan Miyasaka commented that the game was crazy because for as well as we played, we sure didn’t beat them by very much. This team was just like Evergreen in my eyes. They have been playing good basketball and their record does not do them justice. They are playing very well for being on a 12-game losing streak. They just cannot seem to break the cycle. We did not want to go through another loss like the night before, so we got a few extra rebounds (Reno’s offensive rebounds were especially crucial), shot a little higher percentage, made a few more three pointers and came away with the “W”. It was a hard fought game and everyone who played was exhausted afterwards.

Oh and one more thing…I don’t know if everyone is wondering, but as far as Crystal Idrogo’s absence from the game…I have no idea. I do not know what is up with that, and if anyone hears anything, please let me know. ;-) Thanks.

Men Lose Second Straight, But Bounce Right Back

The men's basketball team lost their second straight conference game Friday night against Evergreen State, or E-State as their team and fans like to call it. They stayed in it the entire game, but were never able to pull ahead. Brent Johnson summed it up when he told me “they [Evergreen] played tougher and didn’t make as many mistakes down the stretch. We could have taken the lead. I was waiting to get ahead and we kept staying four down. I don’t think we came really ready to play.”

The Geoducks (pronounced Goo-eee-ducks) forced 24 turnovers by the Owls who shot just under 30% from the 3-point line and 50% from the free-throw line. The men gave up 22 offensive rebounds in exchange for their own 16. The stats were relatively even across the board, except the assist to turnover ratio. E-State’s ratio was a bit better than ours. Mike Nieraeth touched on it perfectly when he said the Owls had “too many costly mistakes, didn’t capitalize on their missed shots, and we had too many turnovers.” Mike said all of those are what cost them the game.

As a spectator it became frustrating when the turnovers started to add up, particularly in the second half. An outlet pass that was thrown out of bounds for no reason, a Geoduck defender hitting the ball from behind to secure the steal, and our man dribbling out of bounds on the baseline are just a few of the turnovers I remember from Friday’s game. Granted there were some fouls that should have been called, but there are always those fouls and they can no longer be used as an excuse.

The only other thing I distinctly remember is the annoying guy across the gym in the student section with long curly hair yelling into a megaphone the entire game. He was brutal! He never shut up and continually yelled negative or just plain annoying sayings or cheers toward our team. What ever happened to positive cheering for your own team?

Well, the next night was a little different. There was no annoying guy with a megaphone, just regular old student cheering section. It was good to see some support. Also, it was good to see that not too many people actually came to the game. Northwest’s gym is REALLY small with just a few rows of wooden bleacher on each side of the court. There is about two feet of room on the baseline, maybe less and once you’re in the bleachers you are pretty much stuck until half time or the end of the game (unless you want to get in someone’s way or walk out on the court).

The men shot a whopping 68% from the field, which they obviously needed in order to get the win. They shot the ball well, rebounded well and came away with the 82-73 victory. The player that really stood out in my mind was Josh Wetzler. He seemed to be cleaning everything up down low and he finished REALLY well! He made 10 of 11 shots from the field and was 5-6 from the free throw line. He was the “garbage man,” if you will.

On the defensive end it seemed like Northwest had so many good shooters that it was hard to get out on every single one. It seemed like anytime someone on their team caught the ball behind the arc our bench was yelling “SHOOTER!” And it turns out they do have phenomenal shooters. Three of the players each had four 3 pointers and as a team they shot over 58% from behind the arc. It was an exciting game and a nail-biter until the end, but our men finally pulled it off, settling for the split this past weekend in conference play.

Lady Owl's Take Care of Business

This weekend seemed like a cruise for the Lady Owl’s after the previous two games against Southern Oregon and Northwest Christian. Friday night’s game against Cascade found four people scoring in double figures (Crystal Idrogo 19, Amanda Johnston 13, Jenna Ball 11 and I had 17). Meagan Miyasaka had the only other standout statistic with 9 assists.

I have to tell you that I did not expect to come away with a 78-57 win. I thought the game was going to be a lot closer than that. Well…I think the 1-point defeat to them last year had a little something to do with it. I knew we could not underestimate them like we did last year, and from everything Coach Greenleaf told us they seemed to have improved tremendously. The focus for the game was to keep them off the boards and to pick up pressure defense well outside the 3-point line (their shooters are known to pull up from 25 feet). They have good shooters and we wanted to limit their looks at the basket. Coach compared them to Fresno Pacific, a team we played earlier in the year. He said if we played the kind of defense against Cascade that we did against Fresno Pacific we would have no problem. Based on our previous games, I did not know how that was going to go.

We came out of our little “slump” and held them to 38 percent shooting from the field, and a measly 25 percent from 3-point range. We also outrebounded them 45-35. We did everything we were supposed to and lo-and-behold, we came away with the 21-point victory.

Saturday night seemed just as easy as we defeated Warner Pacific 72-50. In the first half Crystal Idrogo was on fire! It seemed like she couldn’t miss from under the basket. We put in a new play this past week in practice, and we kept running it because they couldn’t defend it. Idrogo finished with 23 points and Jenna and I finished with 18 and 10 points apiece.

We also took advantage and ran the floor for 40 minutes—they couldn’t keep up. Our defensive emphasis was on keeping the ball out of the paint. They do not really have any good three-point shooters, so we had extra help from the wings down low. It turns out their leading scorer for the game was their post, #44 Danica Wilson, but she was the only one. We also did a great job keeping them off the boards, and crashing the offensive boards on our end. The final rebounding stats were Oregon Tech 50, Warner Pac 33.

In both wins this weekend we received great support and hard work from our “reinforcements” (as coach says). Megan Ross, Tabatha Cooke, and Crystal Trout in particular came in and gave us a great boost, while Jaclyn Unruh and Mackenzie Garton came in cold off the bench towards the end of the game and put in their best effort. Commends to all the reinforcements for their huge hearts!

Both teams head to Olympia and Kirkland, WA this Thursday to play Evergreen State College on Friday and Northwest University on Saturday. The plan, as always, is to come back with 4 wins and a clean sweep.

Men Split Cascade and Warner Pac

Friday night’s men’s game against Cascade College was filled with dunks and rough play. The debut of Myles Daley’s first dunk of the season, along with a scuffle that ended in a technical foul on the side of the opponents, was the talk of the night. The men make it seem so easy, which is why I can understand why the Cascade men were getting a little frustrated. Granted, the solution to frustration is never to fight someone (especially when you are a role model), but anytime you lose 100-56 there is some definite hard-feelings. Tech had three players score in double figures (Ryan Fiegi had 18 points, Myles Daley 17, and Ryan Beesley 11) while the rest of the stats were relatively even—except rebounds where Josh Wetzler collected 12.

The next night did not come so easy for our men. In fact, it [the win] did not come at all. They faced their second conference defeat against Warner Pacific in a game that was neck-and-neck the entire 40 minutes. The final score was 88-84. The loss put them at a tie for first place in the Cascade College Conference, with them and Eastern Oregon both at a record of 8-2.
I usually do not stay the entire game, because I often get bored when there is a 20-point scoring margin. This was not the case on Saturday night. The entire game was suspenseful! Just one example of this is when we were down by four with seconds left in the first half and Fiegi hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 1. Now that was exciting!
I was hoping at some point that the men would pull away enough to get a comfortable lead, but they never did. Warner Pac had great shooters and rebounders, and it seemed like whenever we made a little a run they had an answer. To tell you the truth, as a spectator I was getting REALLY frustrated at our rebounding effort on the defensive end. It SEEMED like every time I turned around #30 for Warner Pac got another offensive rebound. You can imagine my amazement when I read the stats after the game and learned that we outrebounded them 40-38. It just didn’t seem right. We also had five less turnovers (7 and 12). The part that killed us was the shooting. Warner Pac shot nearly 52 percent from the field and 56 percent from behind the arc. The Owl’s shot 42 percent from the field and just 24 percent from 3-point range. We also had four players score in double figures: Ryan Fiegi 24, Josh Wetzler 15, Jguwon Hogges 14, and Christian Cavanaugh 12.
I have to tell you, this game was a heartbreaker. I kept thinking that Fiegi would “pull another Concordia” where he hit 3 after 3 to help capture the win. There was no such thing. He shot a three in the final minute, but it did not fall. I also did not understand, and I hope others can agree, why the men did not shoot three’s at the end. They were down by six with very little time left on the clock and they took a 15-footer. Does that make sense? They also were driving to the basket. I don’t know why they didn’t pull up for the long shot. Maybe they were trying for the and-1. Who knows? All I have to say is that we have one more go at them before the end of conference and it is going to be a blood bath!

Owl’s Split at Southern, Sweep Against Northwest Christian

This past week held an usual schedule for the OIT basketball teams, playing Tuesday night at Southern Oregon and Friday night at Danny Miles Court against Northwest Christian.

While the men held a relatively comfortable lead the entire game against SOU, winning 89-76, the women could not come back from an early deficit, losing 58-83. For a while I though that the men were going to let the Raider’s come back for a chance to win. SOU cut the lead to 7 or 8 a couple times in the second half, but they couldn’t get any closer.

I have no clue as to why we could not play like we usually do, but our shots were off, our defense was slow and it seemed we had no energy. Granted, we did play Friday and Saturday and then had only two days to prepare, but they did the same thing. There are no room for excuses. Our heads were not in it, they shot A LOT better than us, making 53 % of the 3-point attempts while we only shot 10 percent from beyond the arc. It was rough, especially getting beat the worst we have all season to a rival school. The only thing I can say is that by playing them I know we are much better than them and I am VERY glad we have one more shot at them!

We played another close game against Northwest Christian College Friday night, winning by 1 point and coming back from a 16-point deficit. We won 50-49 in a game that took us the entire 40 min to come away with the win. If there was any less time we wouldn’t have made it. Meagan Miyasaka hit the game-winning 3-pointer with 3 seconds left on the clock! She is one that most would not expect to take the last second shot, having a pass-first mentality, but she was open, stepped up and stroked it! It was so exciting and I was extremely relieved that we came through in the end because that is a win that we definitely needed.

The men made the game seem easy, winning 90-70. However, in the beginning I was starting to think that we had rubbed off of them. Their defense was sloppy and unorganized. They seemed to get beat a lot, but they cleaned it up in a short amount of time and never looked back. I did not get to see the second half due to my hunger, but it looks like the same players from Tuesday’s game are the ones who stood out. Fiegi, Christian and Ryan Beesley all scored in double figures both nights, while on Tuesday Mike Nieraeth scored in double figures as well.

Congrats to both teams and good luck this weekend!

Basketball Returns After Successful "Break"

While Fall term came to a close, the men and women’s basketball team stayed in full swing. The women played 8 games over the break, ending up 6-2 between December 10 and January 5. The men played 5, winning all of them and improving their overall record to 16-2.

The Women had wins over Linfield, Northwest, Evergreen, Menlo, Corban and Concordia. They lost to Puget Sound and Rocky Mountain. At the end of the break the owl’s have three players averaging scores in double figures: Crystal Idrogo leads with 15.7 points per game, Jenna Ball follows with 12.4 and I end with 10.6. Crystal also leads in total blocks with 19, I lead in rebounds with 7.9 per game and total steals with 33. Meagan Miyasaka leads the team overall in assists with 85.

The men collected wins over Dominican University, Northwest, Evergreen, Corban and Concordia. They also have three players in double digits: Ryan Fiegi leads with 20.7, Christian Cavanaugh and Jguwon Hogges follow with 18.5 and 10.2. Fiegi also leads with 22 blocks, 28 steals and 110 assists. Josh Wetzler leads in rebounds with 8.1 per game, while Christian is CLOSE behind with 8.0.

The only game I would like to comment on that occurred during the break is the men’s Concordia game. It was intense! The score became tied 43-43 at half with a 3 pointer made by Mike Nieraeth at the very end of the half. That gave the owl’s some momentum as they ran to the locker room, but they were never able to pull ahead and keep the lead throughout the second half. At the end of the game the owls were up by three and it was Concordia ball. Everyone in the gym knew they had to go for three or there was no chance. The shooter was predictable as well, but somehow despite the obvious, Concordia got a shot of and swished the basket to make it a tie game. It was so exciting! All our fans were hoping that in the last possession of the game our men could put a stop to this madness and go home with the “W” without having to go into overtime. Imagine our excitement when Jguwon Hogges dribbled into the middle of the key and laid up a shot with no time on the clock! He made the shot and everyone went crazy! I was so happy! Although Fiegi had 41 points that game, Jguwon made the last and final 2, leading them to victory. All the teammates surrounded Jguwon and celebrated the game- winning shot. It was AMAZING.

Conference: Women Lose First Two, Men Split

I wrote this piece before we went on break, but I did not post it due to a busy schedule. I just found it and figured I would still post it along with some pictures. So here it goes…

This last weekend left me with a bitter taste in my mouth and a head full of frustration. Granted, we only played our fifth and sixth games of the season, but to lose two games that in a row against teams that we were beating at one point is not fun. It is all about finishing. After the Eastern Oregon game I was talking to Jenna and we just could not figure out what it is. Why were we unable to come out with the win after such a hard fight? Is it about heart? Is it about desire? Is it about experience and knowledge of the game? I do not know.

We opened up this weekend against the College of Idaho Yotes, losing 66-74. We knew that the game was going to be tough since COI is the only team in our conference that full-court presses the entire game. We had not seen anything like it and it was going to be an experience. I talked with Megan Miyasaka before the game we went over things we needed to remember while playing a pressure team (stay calm, keep your head up, don’t get ‘rattled’, don’t get forced into playing their type of game, etc.). Our game plan was to play our game and make them adjust. It worked well, for the most part. At the end, they were finding it difficult to guard us with their zone, so they had to pull out to man-to-man defense. As far as we know, that was the first game they have played this year where they went to man-to-man.

The stats look pretty good; the shooting percentages are about even, we out-rebounded them by 22 (!) and we had some good numbers put up by our players. It wasn’t enough. Although Coach Greenleaf gave us props for not getting 31 turnovers (what other COI opponents average), we still had 28 which is a lot. I think that is where the difference came. They only had 13 turnovers, which gives them 15 more chances to score. The loss almost did not seem real, or it did not seem that it mattered. To play a conference game so early and with few games under our belt felt very awkward.

Awkward or not, the next night we played Eastern Oregon University. Again, we lost; this time by one less point, falling 66-73. Playing Eastern, we expected some rough play and tight, switching defense. What we did not expect was to have someone wide open under the basket multiple times. Their defense was rough, but not perfect. They left one of our players open under the basket numerous times. Unfortunately, despite mentioning it at half time, we were unable to capitalize on it. I guess since they were playing so tight our players could not even see who was open.

What I thought would be good is that we are known for our good defense. I thought it would be a defensive matchup. Wrong. I thought we had very poor help-side defense. It seemed like every time an Eastern player drove to the basket, there was no one there to step in and contest it. It seemed like they got layup after layup. And their post (Henderson) seemed unstoppable in the paint. She couldn’t miss!

I’m getting ahead of myself, however. The beginning of the game was all about us. It seemed easy and I remember thinking, this is Eastern? They are nothing. What is so great about them? We can win this game, no problem! Well after a time out and a few letdowns that turned completely around. The game was neck-and-neck the entire time, really anyone’s game at any point. Right before the half I set a screen for Jenna. She came off, shot about an NBA-range 3-pionter and made it, giving us the lead by one at half (36-35).

Unfortunately that is not how the game ended. It seemed like by the time we thought about hurrying to get some points, it was too late. We were not quick enough and let the game slip through our hands. We tried to foul and slow the game down, but it did not help. Even though they only shot 50% from the free-throw line, they still came away with the win.

One of our foci for the game was limiting their offensive boards. They had 22 the night before against SOU and coach thought that if we could keep that number down--which we did--it would be our game. We held them to 10 offensive boards.

The men’s team split on the road in their first conference games, beating COI and losing to EOU. Both games were fun to watch, although the EOU game got frustrating.