TACOMA — Devin Edwards’ 3-point basket from the top of the key with 26 seconds left gave Port Angeles the lead and the Roughriders survived two late North Kitsap shot attempts in the final 5 seconds to pull out a 37-36 win and advance to the Class 2A West Central District Championship.
The victory pushed Port Angeles (20-3) up to No. 3 in the state’s RPI rankings, essentially assuring the program’s first trip to the state tournament in Yakima since 2014. The Riders will face No. 9 White River (20-4), winners of the last two district titles, in the district championship Saturday at Wilson High School in Tacoma at 4 p.m.
Wednesday’s win over North Kitsap was Port Angeles’ third triumph in four games this season versus the Vikings, all three victories coming in a span of 15 days.
Like the other contests, this one was a grinder between two teams that know each other’s strengths and weaknesses inside and out.
“As usual between these two teams, it was a pretty clean game,” Riders coach Michael Poindexter said.
Port Angeles trailed 26-24 entering the fourth quarter.
“Early in the fourth quarter, Gracie and Millie Long provided our scoring, each hitting a three-pointer, and Millie added two free throws,” Poindexter said.
“Devin Edwards hit a 12-foot shot along the baseline to give us a 34-28 lead with 3:52 left in the game. That’s all the scoring we would do for the next 3:26. North Kitsap tied the game at 2:13 on Lauren Wines’ 3-pointer, her only basket of the game.”
An Erin Pearson putback of an Olivia Selembo miss put the Vikings up 36-34 with 38 seconds left.
“On the next possession, Devin Edwards hit a three from up top to give us a 37-36 lead with 26 seconds left,” Poindexter said. “With 5 seconds left, North Kitsap’s Raelee Moore dove between two Port Angeles defenders on a drive and missed. Mikkiah Brady and a North Kitsap player both got the rebound. The Vikings had the possession arrow. On the in-bounds play with 2.6 seconds left, they got the ball to Selembo, who missed a shot inside just before the buzzer.”
Poindexter said rebounding was a strength for Port Angeles for most of the night.
This is the Riders first trip to the district championship since a 2012 loss to White River in Poindexter’s first season as head coach. Port Angeles’ last district championship came in 2011.
Port Angeles 37, North Kitsap 36
NK 10 6 10 9— 36
PA 6 11 7 13— 37
North Kitsap (36) — Selembo 10, Barreith 7, Pearson 6, Moore 6, Johnson 4, Wines 3.
Port Angeles (37) — M. Long 14, Wheeler 6, Edwards 5, Brady 3, G. Long 3, Steinman 2, Politika 2, Wood 2, Wenzl, Gray, Cooke, Olsen.
Port Townsend 58, Cascade Chr. 54, OT
BREMERTON — The Redhawks earned a state regional berth, a measure of revenge and some respect for the Olympic League with an overtime triumph over the Cougars.
Port Townsend (10-10) will face No. 9 Seattle Christian (17-2) for the Class 1A West Central District crown at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Bremerton High School.
“This is the same team that knocked us out of the playofffs last year,” Redhawks coach Scott Wilson said.
“Our girls really wanted this game, they wanted to show the Olympic League can play with the Nisqually League teams.”
Port Townsend had 11 days off since their regular season finale and used that time to study up on Cascade Christian.
“We had looked at them before, they run a 2-3 zone [defense], so we put in an offense designed to provide some outside shooting,” Wilson said.
“But the story of the game was our defense. Cascade has two posts and an outside shooter who do much of their scoring and we smothered those guys, except for their comeback in the fourth quarter. We made some turnovers and their posts started scoring.”
The Redhawks took a lead in overtime and were able to get the ball in the hands of their best shooter, Jaz Apker-Montoya.
“We tried to get the ball into Jaz’s hands and she hit her free throws in overtime,” Wilson said. Apker-Montoya hit three 3-point baskets and scored 14 points in the game.
Kaitlyn Meek led all scorers with 22 points for Port Townsend.
“Kaitlyn is the straw that stirs the drink and she was a monster on both ends of the court,” Wilson said. She scored on a lot of good hard drives to the basket and she hit from the free throw line. And I bet she had 10 rebounds.”
Wilson also praised senior Cece Nielsen for her defense on the Cougars’ Sheilaine Lorenz.
“She took on Lorez and played lockdown defense for us,” he said.
Port Townsend now faces a Seattle Christian team that thrives on the outside shot.
“We will have our work cut out for us against SC,” Wilson said.
“It’s an important game for us because it determines seeding to regionals and that’s important because our RPI is not good. We will end up with a tough team at the regional round.”
Port Townsend is currently No. 49 in the RPI rankings which are used to seed teams to regionals and the 12-team state tournament in Yakima.
Port Townsend 58, Cascade Christian 54, OT
CC 13 9 11 15 6— 54
PT 8 19 15 6 10— 58
Cascade Christian (54) — Knoor 12, Lorenz 12, Miller 9, McCreary 8, Radcliffe 5, Teifke 4, A. Teifke 2, Pearson 2.
Port Townsend (58) — Meek 22, Apker-Montoya 14, Hammett 13, Lake 5, Nielsen 4, Johnston, Kellogg.
Port Angeles 67, Lindbergh 59
UNIVERSITY PLACE — The Roughriders led from wire-to-wire but pulled off a high-wire act to stay alive in the Class 2A West Central District Tournament.
Port Angeles held a 23-point lead in the first half, led 42-23 at halftime paced by 14 first-half points from Payton Schmidt, and were up 61-42 early in the fourth quarter. But the Eagles whittled that lead down late, led by 6-foot-7 Jalen Green who fouled out late having scored 38 points.
“Offensively, we came out and executed great in the first half, spacing was good, our ball movement was good and we hit our shots,” Port Angeles coach Kasey Ulin said.
“Defensively, we were sharp in that second quarter. We went on a 20-3 run to separate the game.”
Lindbergh cranked up its pressure defense after halftime and trimmed Port Angeles’ lead.
“Lindbergh went to a scrambling man-to-man press and eventually cut the lead to three in the final minute,” Ulin said.
The Riders got a big bucket inside from Garrett Edwards, who scored nine of his 17 points in the fourth quarter and a huge hustle play from Easton Joslin.
After a missed free throw by Port Angeles, Joslin scrapped with Green for the ball near the sideline.
“It was an awesome play,” Ulin said. “Easton didn’t give up on the ball on a missed free throw, got elbowed by Green and that fouled him out and we got two free throws. Those little effort plays are what we preach and once Green went out we hit our free throws.”
Schmidt finished with 22 points, including six 3s, and Kyle Benedict had 11 and Liam Clark added 10.
The Riders (15-8) will play Clover Park (15-8) tonight at 6 p.m. at Bellarmine Prep in Tacoma in another loser-out contest. The winner advances to face the winner between Olympic and Franklin Pierce for the district’s fifth and final berth to the state regional round. That contest will be held at Washington High School in Tacoma at noon on Saturday.
Port Angeles 67, Lindbergh 59
LND 16 7 15 20 — 59
PA 23 19 10 15— 67
Lindbergh (59) — Hill 4, Bailey 3, Green 38, Cora 7, Segal 7.
Port Angeles (67) — Joslin 2, Schmidt 22, Benedict 11, Edwards 17, Clark 12, Kathol 5, Johnson, Long, McGuffey.
Olympic 55, Sequim 49, OT
TACOMA — The Wolves gave it a valiant effort, but couldn’t upset No. 13 Olympic in a back-and-forth loser-out district contest at Wilson High School on Wednesday.
In a wild cap to regulation, Sequim had two looks at a game-tying 3-pointer rim out and rebounded both misses. Payton Glasser’s second try was money just before the final buzzer to send the game to overtime.
Olympic scored the first six points in overtime to take the upper hand, including a 3-point basket by Jaiden Mosley. Mosley led all scorers with 27 points.
Three pointers helped the Wolves all game long, Sequim hit 8 of 24 from beyond the arc and limited Olympic to 2 of 18 shooting on 3s.
The loss ends Sequim’s season at 10-12.
Olympic 55, Sequim 49, OT
Sequim 16 4 15 9 5— 49
Olympic 6 15 10 13 11— 55
Sequim (49) — Despain 17, Glasser 13, Williams 13, Cowan 6, Rollness, Eaton, Whitney, Langston, Oliver, Christiansen, Young, Bell.
Olympic (55) — Mosley 27, Turnquist 10, Morgan 6, Dean 6, Barron 5, Brehmer 1.
