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.