PORT ANGELES — The Peninsula basketball women won their eighth game in a row and remain tied for first place in the North Division, getting hot in the fourth quarter to fend off Everett 79-64.
The women blew open a close game, going on a 17-4 run over a 5-minute stretch in the fourth to pull away from the Trojans. After a 1-3 start in league play, the women are in the hunt for a North Division championship with two games left to play.
When asked what changed after that 1-3 start, head coach Alison Crumb said, “honestly, our commitment to success has changed.
It takes attachment to and pride in the program. We’ve had that, but to be really successful, sometimes it takes a little extra,” she said.
The men, meanwhile, couldn’t complete a rally from a deep hole and fell to an undefeated Everett squad 94-82, putting their backs against the wall as far as making the postseason.
In the women’s game, the victory put the Pirates at 9-3 in the North Division, tied for first with Olympic. Peninsula has one game it should win easily on the road Wednesday against 0-13 Shoreline and a potentially tough game on the road Saturday against a 7-4 Bellevue squad as it shoots for a North Division championship.
Olympic, meanwhile, has to play Skagit Valley (7-5) and needs to make up a postponed game against Edmonds (4-8).
Against Everett, the women were locked in a 58-54 battle with 8 minutes left in the game when the Pirates blew the contest open. Ashlynn Sharp sparked the run with a 3-pointer. She added another bucket and two rebounds in the over the next five minutes, while Kameron Bowen scored all of her six points during the run.
Sharp ended up having an outstanding game, scoring 17 points, pulled down eight rebounds and dishing out six assists, while hitting a pair of 3-pointers.
Sunshine Vicente shot 4 for 4 from 3-point range and scored 16 points to go along with seven rebounds, while Leilani Padilla shot 4 for 5 from beyond the arc and finished with 19 points.
As a team, the Pirates shot 11 for 20 (55 percent) from 3-point range.
Casandra White added 10 rebounds and seven points.
This game fit the pattern of numerous games this season of the Peninsula women going on a big run in the fourth quarter to either come from behind or blow open a close game. Crumb credited this to team chemistry.
“Players are not afraid to take their shots. When you believe in your teammates, you have a little more courage,” she said.
“We’re making the best of a lot of talent and now we’re in a position to control our region,” she said. Crumb said the Pirates would love to win the North and get an undisputed No. 1 seed. But, Olympic and Peninsula have split two games this year, so if the two teams end up tied for the league championship, postseason seeding will come down to some complicated tiebreakers. The Pirates very much want to avoid having to play a No. 1 seed right out of the gate in the NWAC Tournament like they had to last year, she said.
The women (9-3, 16-8) play at Shoreline (0-13 2-21) on Wednesday. Crumb said she is already working on making sure the Pirates don’t get too confident against Shoreline.
“It would be easy to call this game a gimme, but we’re going to attack it like we attack every game,” she said.
Peninsula 79, Everett 64
Everett 14 12 24 14 — 64
PC 22 17 17 23 — 79
Everett (64) — Mellick 24, Hezekiah 17, Balderas 12, Marshall 7, Delaney 4.
Peninsula (79) — Padilla 19, Sharp 17, Vicente 16, Luke 7, White 7, Bowen 6, Danner 4, Williams 3.
Men’s Basketball Everett 94, Peninsula 82
PORT ANGELES — The Peninsula men came close to knocking off first-place Everett on Saturday night, but the deep Trojans, who had three players with over 20 points, were able to respond to a Pirates’ comeback in the fourth quarter.
“We battled. We had dug ourselves too deep of a hole,” said coach Donald Rollman.
Everett got off to a fast start, outscoring Peninsula 7-0 to begin the game. The Trojans were able to twice build up a 16-point lead in the second half, getting up 52-36 with 16:55 left.
At that point, the Pirates got “much more aggressive on the offensive end,” Rollman said. The Pirates shot 58 percent in the second half and scored 46 points in less than 17 minutes. In the end, it came down a couple of stops the Pirates weren’t able to get late.
“We just couldn’t quite make enough defensive plays down the stretch,” Rollman said.
Kahapea led all scorers in Saturday’s game with 31 points. He shot 6 for 9 from beyond the 3-point line and added nine rebounds to lead the Pirates.
James Buckley had 19 points, making three 3-pointers and pulled down eight rebounds, while Nyair Cleveland and Erik Kelly each scored 10.
Saturday’s loss came after two other very close losses to Edmonds and Whatcom last week.
“It’s been a little bit of an emotional rollercoaster,” Rollman said.
The Trojans still had a comfortable 11-point lead at 82-71 with 3:20 left when the Pirates’ Sam Kahapea, who had a stellar game overall, hit a 3-pointer to start a Pirates’ rally. Twice, the Pirates cut the lead down to six points at 82-76 and 84-78, but that was as close as they could get as the Trojans, 12-0 in the North Division and 20-7 overall, outscored Peninsula 10-4 over the last couple of minutes to finish out the game.
The loss could end up being a serious blow to the Pirates’ playoff chances. Peninsula is 5-7 in the North Division (8-18 overall), in fifth place 1½ games out of a playoff spot. Peninsula must win out on the road against Shoreline (4-9, 8-18) on Wednesday and Bellevue (6-5, 15-9) on Saturday to have a shot. The Pirates also likely need some help and need other teams to beat fourth-place Bellevue or third-place Whatcom (7-5).
The good news for the Pirates is that Bellevue has to play a game against that powerful Everett squad.
“We still have a chance. We have to keep working,” Rollman said. “We’ve been telling the guys the opportunity is there. And we’ve done it for the most part. It just comes down to finishing it off.”
Everett 94, Peninsula 82
Everett 44 50 — 94
PC 29 53 — 82
Everett (94) — Jespersen 25, Odom 23, Parker 22, Brown 14, Crumley 5, Phillips 3, Makuei 2.
Peninsula (82) — Kahapea 31, Buckley 19, Cleveland 10, Kelly 10, Harris-Williams 8, Moore 4.
Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News Peninsula’s Nyair Cleveland, right, loses his footing as he drives to the paint as Everett’s Tori Odom protects the lane during the first half on Saturday night in Port Angeles.
