EVERETT — Imani Smith caught herself messing up the analogy.

“We have a huge dart . . . target on our back,” Smith said Saturday afternoon.

“And we knew it wasn’t going to be easy, we knew teams were coming at us. We couldn’t just fly under the radar like we did last year.”

That’s OK, though. In Smith’s two years on the Peninsula College women’s basketball team, the program has transformed into one that was happy to make the Northwest Athletic Conference tournament to one that is aiming to win it.

The Pirates advanced to their second consecutive NWAC championship game by defeating the Lower Columbia Red Devils 66-44 in the semifinals Saturday at Everett Community College.

Peninsula will try to finish off its defense of last year’s title today at 5:30 p.m.

“This is where we wanted to be,” Pirates coach Alison Crumb said.

“Win or lose [today], this is where we wanted to be, to have a shot at it, be on that stage again, put everything that we have out there.”

Neither team put on much of an offensive display in the first half.

There were five lead changes and five ties. Peninsula held the largest lead of the half, 13-7, near the end of the first quarter, but Lower Columbia then reeled off eight straight points to take a 15-13 lead.

“We were too sluggish offensively,” Crumb said.

“Pass, catch, dribble, pass, catch — it was too slow, and it was neutralizing our athleticism.

“And we needed to go out there and cause havoc defensively so that we could get out in the open floor and highlight our athleticism.”

The lone fireworks of the first half came when the Pirates did just that in the final minute.

First, Zhara Laster stole the ball and hooked up Anaya Rodisha for a layup.

Then, after another Peninsula steal, Imani Smith set up Rodisha for another layup that beat the buzzer and gave the Pirates a 25-21 lead.

That ending was more than a 4-0 run.

“That was momentum,” Smith said.

“We fed off of that, coming out in the second half. Those quick points, that was all momentum, and we used it.”

That carried over to the third quarter, when Peninsula finally got rolling

Cierra Moss, who only made 1 of 8 field goals in the first half, opened the third with a 3-pointer that started a 7-2 run to start the quarter.

Moss started two other scoring spurts in the third quarter, as Peninsula quickly put the game away.

Moss scored a bucket to open an 8-0 run that pushed the cushion to 42-27, and her second 3 opened a 7-0 run that made it 49-30.

Moss finished with 13 points and four assists.

Laster and Smith were all over those spurts as well, getting steals on the defensive end and attacking the hoop or setting up teammates on offense.

Similar to what they did at the end of the first half.

“That spurt there that was sort of apparent in the first half where we did get some momentum, we were being aggressive. Imani was getting steals and Zhara was getting steals,” Crumb said.

“We just said, ‘You know what, screw it. We’re not going to help off the post anymore. Get up, put pressure on, get in the passing games, you know, play to your strengths. Let’s play fast, let’s get out in the open floor, let’s get to the basket.’”

Smith paced Peninsula with 18 points to go along with four assists and four steals.

Laster finished with 10 points, 13 rebounds and five steals.

Freshman post Jenise McKnight went 6 of 8 at the free throw line and finished with 12 points and seven rebounds.

The fourth quarter was merely a formality. The Pirates continued to add to their lead, building it as high as 23 points, 64-41, in the final minutes.

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Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.