OLYMPIA, Wash. – The No. 17 Eastern Oregon University Women's Basketball team claimed their third straight Cascade Collegiate Conference Championship Saturday night with a 63-59 victory over The Evergreen State College.
 
By winning the regular season, the Mountaineers have earned an automatic berth into the 2015 NAIA Division II Women's Basketball National Championship. This is the fourth straight season EOU has went to the National Championships.
 
Airashay Rogers led the Mountaineers (24-5, 16-2 CCC) with 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting. Madeline Laan added 10 points to round out the double figure scorers for the Mountaineers, who won their tenth straight contest.
 
LaNieci Weatherspoon scored a game-high 25 points to lead the Geoducks (16-9, 10-8 CCC). Sadee Jones followed with 16 points for Evergreen.
 
The Mountaineers and Geoducks both struggled to shoot the ball to start the game. Eastern Oregon slowly started to get things rolling during the half but Evergreen did not, as the Geoducks only made six field goals during the first half of the contest.
 
EOU opened the game on a 10-2 run that saw three different Eastern Oregon players score. Leading the way was Madeline Laan, who scored four of the ten points during the run. However, the Geoducks answered back and trimmed EOU's lead down to three, 12-9, after a pair of free throws by Natasha Trinidad.
 
After Evergreen trimmed the EOU lead down to three points, the Mountaineers responded by scoring the next eight points of the contest taking a 20-9 lead over the Geoducks, with four minutes to go in the half, after a three by Jasmine Yarde.
 
Eastern Oregon continued to hold onto their double-figure lead for the remainder of the half and EOU went into halftime with a 29-18 lead.
 
The Mountaineers extended their lead to 31-18 to start the second half after Laan hit a layup. Evergreen would not go away and the Geoducks trimmed the Mountaineers lead down to eight points, 34-26, after a Weatherspoon jumper.
 
The Mountaineers wasted little time extending their lead back to double-figures, to as many as 14 points, 44-30, after a pair of free throws by Larissa Quintana. After EOU took the 14 point lead, the Geoducks answered back and trimmed the lead down to six points, 48-42, after another Weatherspoon jumper.
 
Evergreen continued to battle and tied the game at 50-50 after a 3-pointer by Jones. After tying the game, EOU answered and built their lead to six points, 58-52, after a layup by Kassy Larson. Karina Gee answered for the Geoducks with a 3-pointer, cutting the EOU lead in half, 58-55, with1:40 left in the contest.

Three points would be as close as the Geoducks would get and the Mountaineers sealed the game at the free throw line. EOU came away with a 63-59 victory.
 
The Mountaineers return to action on Tuesday, Feb. 24 when they host Concordia the Quarterfinals of the Cascade Collegiate Conference Tournament. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m. at Quinn Coliseum.