LYNNWOOD — The Peninsula Pirates got their groove back with an 82-33 shellacking of Edmonds in their women’s basketball region opener.
In the men’s game, Peninsula College nearly upset fourth-ranked Edmonds before falling 66-59.
The Peninsula women entered Saturday’s game as one of the favorites in the Northwest Athletic Conference North Region, while the Tritons entered having won only one game this season and as the lowest scoring team in the entire conference.
So a 49-point win over Edmonds — no offense — isn’t normally crucial to a team, but in many ways, the Tritons were just what the Pirates needed.
“It doesn’t matter who you’re playing, you still need to be able to go out there and make plays,” Peninsula coach Alison Crumb said.
“And we got back on that train.”
Peninsula was coming off a three-week layoff, and its last game experience was three days of dismal shooting at its own tournament, which concluded with an unnerving loss to top-ranked Lane.
Despite playing without leading scorer Cierra Moss and reserve post Jenise McKnight, each due to injury, the Pirates shot 47 percent and had five players score in double figures.
“It was our first game shooting over 40 percent in a while,” Crumb said. “Sometimes you just need to get that monkey off your back.”
In her younger sister’s absence, Cherish Moss paced Peninsula with 17 points while shooting 6 of 12 from the field and 4 of 7 from 3-point range. She also tied Zhara Laster for the team lead with six rebounds.
As of Monday afternoon, Crumb expected Cierra Moss to return to practice this week, and possibly even for Monday’s practice. McKnight, a freshman, is still being evaluated.
Anaya Rodisha started for the Pirates on Saturday and scored 12 points in 17 minutes. She also pulled down five rebounds.
Imani Smith scored 11 points and had five rebounds, three steals and two assists.
Laster finished with 10 points, six rebounds, five steals and four assists, and she didn’t commit a single turnover.
Freshman Alicia Dugan scored 10 points and had four assists and three steals off the bench.
From the post, Daijhan Cooks added eight points and four boards, and Tai Thomas had six points and five rebounds.
The Pirates outscored Edmonds 25-4 in the first quarter, but then were held to nine points in the second quarter.
“We fixed that real quick,” Crumb said.
The second half looked a lot like the first quarter, as Peninsula won the third 27-9 and the fourth 21-5.
Crumb was able to play 12 Pirates, giving extra rest to the starters and some quality run to freshmen and bench players.
She liked how those players responded to the increased minutes.
“It’s hard to get everybody in,” Crumb said. “And sometimes you have to kind of revert, you have to switch back to who you’re comfortable with. That didn’t happen.”
Asiyah Davis led Edmonds (0-1, 1-12) with 13 points.
The Pirates (1-0, 10-4) host two region foes this week: Whatcom (0-1, 0-12) on Wednesday at 5 p.m., and Everett (1-0, 8-7) on Saturday at 4 p.m.
As part of Peninsula College’s Pirate Pete’s Week, Wednesday will be a white-out game. Fans can get a white “Pirate Proud” T-shirt in the gym foyer for a suggested donation of $5. The shirts are free to Peninsula College students.
Peninsula 82, Edmonds 33
Peninsula 25 9 27 21— 82
Edmonds 4 15 9 5— 33
Individual scoring
Peninsula (82)
Rodisha 12, Dugan 10, Z. Laster 10, Hutchins 4, Cooks 8, Ch. Moss 17, Yayouss 2, Smith 11, Criddle 2, Thomas 6, Gonzales, Butler.
Edmonds (33)
Butler 5, Browning 5, Davis 13, Garcia-Williams 7, Lofgren 2, Greene 1, Steffins, Husovic.
MEN’S BASKETBALL
Edmonds 66, Peninsula 59
LYNNWOOD — Coach Mitch Freeman finally got a full 40 minutes from the Pirates, but it wasn’t quite enough in their Northwest Athletic Conference North Region opener against Edmonds.
The Pirates led at halftime and stayed close with the fourth-ranked Tritons until the final five minutes of Saturday’s game.
“For the most part, I was really happy with the way we competed with a good team like Edmonds,” Freeman said.
“We played hard and just really bought into what we needed to do as a basketball team. We just came up short.”
Edmonds was able to create some distance when the Pirates struggled to score late in the game.
“We struggled the last five minutes,” Freeman said. “We had a lot of good looks. We just couldn’t get the shots to drop there.
“We put ourselves in position, we just couldn’t get ball to drop when we needed.”
Peninsula was forced to foul in an effort to stay in the game. That didn’t work out so well because the Tritons shot 18 for 22 for the game at the free-throw line.
Freshman Darrion Daniels paced the Pirates with 25 points while Edmonds was focused on stopping Peninsula’s leading scorers Deonte Dixon and Ryley Callaghan.
Daniels made 7 of 12 shots from the field and 10 of 14 at the free-throw line.
“Darrion was excellent, he really stepped up,” Freeman said. “Ryley and Deonte, [the Tritons] were so physical with both of them the entire game.”
Callaghan finished with eight points, and Dixon, who ranks 16th in the conference in scoring, was held to five points on 2 of 17 shooting.
Callaghan also tied with Malik Mayeux for the team lead with nine rebounds.
As a team, Peninsula outrebounded Edmonds 48-44.
“They definitely held their own to a team that rebounds at a high level, and we were able to outrebound them by four,” Freeman said.
Jeremiah Hobbs grabbed six of the rebounds and scored six points and had two blocks.
“Hobbs was excellent inside,” Freeman said.
“His stat line doesn’t show it, but he had his hands on so many basketballs and was a threat inside.”
Next up for Peninsula is a pair of home games this week, first against second-ranked Whatcom (0-1, 13-4) in a white-out game Wednesday at 7 p.m., and then against Everett (1-0, 10-6) on Saturday at 6 p.m. The Trojans beat the Orcas 72-66 on Saturday.
“I was encouraged with the way we competed,” Freeman said.
“We did what we needed do to against Edmonds, and going forward what we need to do.
“Winning on the road his hard, it’s a challenge, I don’t care what league you’re in.
“I think we’re getting on the right track.”
Edmonds 66, Peninsula 59
Peninsula 32 27 — 59
Edmonds 29 37 — 66
Individual scoring
Peninsula (59)
Callaghan 8, Daniels 25, Dixon 5, Mayeux 6, Reis 7, Hobbs 6, Cook 2, Amos, Baham.
Edmonds (66)
Walton 16, Coulson 2, Williams 5, Carter 12, Smallwood 8, LaCasse 13, Njode 4, Price 6, Ramroth, Hess, Ezeokeke.