Earlier in the season, the Trojan men were able to take Logan Schilder, seven-foot center for the Orcas, out of the game by playing him outside and taking away his height advantage. However, this time around the size of Whatcom would seem to be too much for the Trojans to handle.

Early in the first half, the Trojans seemed to be up to the task of boxing out the big man and playing efficiently on both sides of the ball. Both teams would be neck and neck until about halfway through the first half where EvCC couldn’t take the lid off the basket and Whatcom seemed like they couldn’t miss.

As the Orcas began to pull away, the Trojans would not be able to catch a break as fouls and injury would plague the team early. Brevin Brown would only come in for four minutes and then get sent out with a hand injury for the rest of the game. This hurt the Trojans more than usual as key players would get into foul trouble early.

On paper the Trojans would be behind in every statistical category as Whatcom led in points, assists, and rebounds at the end of the first half. When asked about the game plan against the size down low Noah Jones said, “We were just trying to get everyone to box out and just push him back”. With their incredible size down low the Orcas would lead in rebounding by 14, seven of those being offensive. The great disparity in points would be easily seen by the shooting percentages as the Trojans shot 40.7% to the Orcas 64.7%.

Going into the second half, the Trojans looked as if they just couldn’t find an answer trailing by 20 until the last ten minutes of the game. With 9:21 left, it looked like the Trojans had figured it out when Quadir Williams and Said Hersi came down to hit from beyond the arc and bring them to within 12 points. However, this is the closest they would come to the Orcas as the rest of the game would go back and forth, essentially ending with the same point differential.

The final score would give the Orcas the win with a score of 89-76. The seven footer out of Whatcom ended with an astounding double-double of 19 points, 17 rebounds and three blocks. The Trojans would be led by Williams with 15 points and 11 assists alongside Hersi who led the team in points with 17.

This loss drops the Trojans to a .500 record in league play with a record of 4-4, tying them for fourth in the division with Whatcom. It is a long road ahead as the Trojans will play the top three teams in the division to finish out the season.

“It’s one game at a time. We’re sort of in a funk and we just have to get out of it,” said Coach Walker.

You can watch the Trojans next game at Edmonds Community College on Feb. 10, at 7:00 p.m.