Big Bend men secure playoff spot, women slip further out
Hayes Garrity's 39-point outing against Treasure Valley CC on Friday night was just one of many Big Bend highlights during their weekend road sweep.
PENDLETON, Ore. - One mission down, two more to go for the Big Bend Vikings basketball team.
The Vikings secured two blowout road wins this past weekend to move to 10-1 in the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges (NWAACC) East Division and clinch a spot in the postseason.
By beating Blue Mountain 93-61 on Saturday and 115-87 against Treasure Valley CC the previous evening, the second-ranked Vikings are now two games up with three games to play over second place College of Spokane. A combination of one win and a Spokane loss or two Vikings wins will give Big Bend a successful second mission - clinching the first seed out of the East.
"I am very proud of this team and feel that we are continually getting better on both ends of the court," Vikings head coach Mark Poth said. "We play Columbia Basin College Wednesday night for a chance to win another Eastern Region Championship."
The Vikings (18-4, 10-1) are the defending East Division champions.
Against Blue Mountain, Blake Skidmore led the way for Big Bend with 34 points while Hayes Garrity added 21 points.
Spencer Pingel scored 12 points for the Vikings who shot 38 percent from the field but forced 30 giveaways by the home team, to outscore Blue Mountain 38-8 on points of turnovers.
Big Bend also outrebounded Blue Mountain 58-42, with Ben Olayinka's nine leading the Vikings.
On Friday, Garrity went off for 39 points and dished off six assists in the Big Bend win at Treasure Valley.
Garrity scored 30 points in the first half.
Skidmore added 12 points while Brandon Brooke scored 13 points.
Big Bend shot 60 percent from the field.
Columbia Basin College take on Big Bend tomorrow night at the Peter DeVries Activity Center starting at 8 p.m.
Blue Mountain 77, BIG BEND women 62
With three games left and a three game deficit in East Division play the Big Bend Lady Vikings still have a chance to make the playoffs if not at least secure a .500 or better record.
On Saturday, the Lady Vikings fell 77-62 at Blue Mountain to finish off a split road-trip. The night before, Big Bend held on for a 57-56 win at Treasure Valley.
Big Bend (11-12, 4-7) is in sixth place of the East, three games behind fourth place Yakima Valley and Walla Walla who both stand at 7-4.
Yet, two wins out of their last three games would secure a .500 record on the season and a sweep of their final three outings would guarantee a winning record overall, a .500 mark in NWAACC East play, and potentially still land them a post-season bid.
Against Blue Mountain, Big Bend committed 26 turnovers and shot only 34 percent from the field as their hosts recorded the season sweep of the Lady Vikings.
Brin Neff led Big Bend with 16 points, Shelby Scott added 14 points, and Ali Nielsen scored 12 points and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.
In the Treasure Valley win, Big Bend's shooting was also on the low end, hitting only 31 percent from the field, but they held on for the win behind Scott's 17 points and Nielsen's 13 points and 11 rebounds.
Tomorrow the Lady Vikings play Columbia Basin College at 6 p.m. at Big Bend.