
Everett, WA – Four days after Henry Ihrig's miraculous ¾ court game winning shot on the road against Shoreline, the Trojans returned home to host the Rangers of Olympic College. Olympic entered the contest with an 0-4 north region record, but talented enough to hang in any of those games.
Both teams had trouble scoring to start the game, and it was a 6-2 OC lead four minutes into the action. The Rangers got the lid off the basket first and built a 23-10 lead, but EvCC came roaring back with a 15-2 run to tie the game at 25. Two possessions later Everett got their first lead of the game on a Henry Avra three-point bucket with 2:41 remaining. Jailin Johnson extended the lead on a drive and score, but Olympic kept it tight and the score remained tied 32-32 at the half. Hayden Conaxis led EvCC with 8 first half points.
Everett used a 10-0 run to build a ten-point lead with under fourteen minutes to play and the lead grew to 13 at the under 15-minute media timeout. Olympic showed no quit however and used the next ten minutes to slowly chip away at the deficit. The Rangers cut it to six, but EvCC hit free throws down the stretch, (Johnson went 10/10) and Everett sealed the 86-78 win. Two Trojans scored in double figures, Johnson with 14 points, 11 rebounds and Hayden Conaxis with 22 points and 14 rebounds for a career day.
The Trojans struggled from beyond the arc shooting just 22% but overall were good from the floor, at 46.7%. They also hauled in 52 rebounds and had 24 team assists with 10 blocked shots (the most this season). The record improves to 2-3 in region play with two big road games on deck. At Peninsula on Saturday, and then at Whatcom next Wednesday. Saturday's contest in Port Angeles is set for 4:00pm.