Officially, it wasn’t a playoff game.
But it had all the atmosphere and intensity of one. Win and move on to the NWAC tournament. Lose and stay home.
The Peninsula College men’s basketball team rode a furious defensive effort to beat Shoreline 84-66 on March 9, qualifying for the NWAC tournament as the No. 4 seed out of the North with an 8-6 record. If Shoreline had won, the Dolphins would have gone on to the NWAC tourney instead.
The men put themselves in this position by being unable to win two straight in league play almost all year. It was the 12th straight game for the Pirates alternating between a win and a loss.
“Perspective is everything for us,” PC coach Donald Rollman said. “These kids were never broken. I get emotional talking about it.”
The Pirate men advance to the tourney slated for March 17-18 at Everett Community College, with the Final Four slated for March 26-27 (also at Everett CC).
Peninsula (16-10) takes on No. 1 seed Lane (23-3) at 8 p.m. Thursday, March 17, with the winner taking on No. 2 seed Green River or third-seeded Yakima Valley at 5 p.m. on March 18.
Rollman was proud of the defensive effort against Shoreline. KeAndre Hunter-Holiday only scored five points, but he pulled down 10 rebounds and guarded Shoreline’s 6-foot-6 DeShawn McFerrin, holding him to six points. It doesn’t show up in the stat sheet, but Hunter-Holiday also single-handedly broke up three Shoreline fast breaks. Isaac Garcia had the tough job to guard Shoreline’s athletic scoring machine, A.J. Boyd, who came in to the game averaging 22. He scored 24 points, but it took him 20 shots to do it.
Jaylin Reed, who led the Pirates with 26 points, nine rebounds and five assists, said it feels great to be going to the tournament after last year’s hiatus. And after Peninsula’s backs were against the wall coming into this game.
He said, “we just gotta be [more] hungry than them’,” he said.
Big first-half run
The game was tight early as the Pirates held a 20-19 lead with 8:30 left in the first half. Peninsula opened up a healthy 33-19 lead by going on a 13-0 run over four minutes, capped by a Reed 3-pointer.
It looked like the Pirates were going into the half with a nice 12-point lead, but the Dolphins scored four points in the final 20 seconds to cut the deficit to 40-32. It felt like the Pirates had dominated the half, but they only held an eight-point lead at the break.
A four-point play by Reed with 18:23 left in the half sparked a big Pirates run. Peninsula went on a 19-6 run to take a commanding 59-38 lead with 14:22 left in the game.
Still, no lead in an NWAC game ever feels truly safe, and Shoreline threw everything it had at the Pirates. Shoreline made a couple of runs, cutting the lead down to 14 or 15 points on four occasions, but that was as close as the Dolphins could get. Every time the Dolphins grabbed the momentum, Peninsula had an answer with a steal or a forced turnover or a clutch 3-pointer.
The final exclamation point came on a fast break with 1:37 left in the game when Reed found Isaiah Sampson on the baseline for a thunderous dunk, giving the Pirates an insurmountable 80-63 lead. Sampson finished with 17 points and two blocks.
Roosevelt Williams Jr. also had a great game, scoring 24 points on 10-for-12 shooting. He also shot 4-for-4 from the free-throw line and had four assists.
The referees let the teams play, barely calling any fouls. The Pirates only shot eight free throws for the whole game while Shoreline shot seven.
Former Port Angeles Roughrider Gary Johnson Jr. got in the game in the final minute and hit a 3-pointer.
Pirate women earn NWAC North title, No. 1 seed
Up large in the early going, Peninsula College held back Shoreline’s second-half comeback attempt in a 67-61 triumph to seal the NWAC North Region women’s basketball championship in the Pirates’ home finale on March 9.
Peninsula (13-1 in conference play, 22-3 overall) finished ahead of Whatcom (11-3, 18-4) in the North standings and earned a No. 1 seed to the NWAC Basketball Championships sweet 16 set for March 19-20 at Everett Community College.
The Pirates take on fourth-seeded North Idaho (14-10) at 6 p.m. Saturday, March 19, at Everett Community College. The winner takes on the winner of the Centralia-Portland match-up at 5 p.m. Sunday, March 20.
In last week’s win, Peninsula rode the hot hand of Sequim’s Hope Glasser to a 21-6 lead after the opening quarter. Glasser had eight points, five rebounds and two steals in the early going.
Port Angeles’ Madison Cooke put up six in the second as the Pirates continued to grow their lead.
Peninsula women’s coach Alison Crumb said she was shocked by how much the Pirates got up early (at one point, Peninsula was up 29-8 in the second quarter), but that it turned into a dogfight down the stretch due to turnovers and missed shots.
The Pirates turned it over seven times in the third and connected on just 3 of 12 shots to give the Dolphins extra opportunities and trim a 37-18 halftime advantage all the way down to a 44-41 deficit after three quarters.
Shoreline stuck around for much of the final frame, but post Ituau Tuisaula and Keeli-Jade Smith were key in the fourth quarter as Peninsula came close, but never relinquished the lead.
Peninsula did lose standout Millie Long late in the game to an ankle injury. Long had to be carried off by assistant coach Mike Knowles, but was walking around the gym with no crutches during the men’s game.
“I’m so proud of them. I’m thankful for them. I’m glad it’s not our last game,” Crumb said of the team’s effort. “It was special to see all the hard work come to fruition. I hope it’s special for them.”
Crumb said she was particularly proud that the Pirates weathered a storm early in the year in which four players were out with COVID-19.
“We need to work on some things, but I’ll take a win and Region championship,” she said.
Peninsula’s Roosevelt Williams Jr., right, takes aim at the net while defended by Shoreline’s Jalyn Stepney on March 9 at Peninsula College.
Photo by Keith Thorpe/Olympic Peninsula News Group Peninsula’s Millie Long, right, drives past the defense of Shoreline’s Symone Pease during a March 9 season finale in Port Angeles.
Peninsula’s Jaylin Reed, left, is defended by Shoreline’s A.J. Boyd on March 9 at Peninsula College. Photo by Keith Thorpe/Olympic Peninsula News Group
