The Peninsula College women have had a rough start to their season, but they had a decent week, beating S. Puget Sound 58-44 on Jan. 6, their second win in nine days after an 0-8 start.

“It was a really good game minus our turnovers. They took good shots. It was a really good effort,” said coach Alison Crumb. The Pirates had a good defensive game, holding the Clippers to 26.7 percent shooting from the floor.

“They did a good job making things difficult.”

The good news for the Pirates: They had four women in double figures. The bad news: They got zero points from their bench. Leading the Pirates in scoring was Tiffani Smith with 18. Ashlynn Sharp scored 17 with five assists and four steals, Jamellia Clark had 12 points and 11 rebounds and Jocelyn Moore 11 points.

Smith shot 7 for 10 from the floor while Sharp hit three 3-pointers.

The Pirates overcame a slow start and blew away the Clippers 38-12 in the second and third quarters.

Crumb said the Pirates will be getting Yamelei Rodriguez back this week from injury. Rodriguez played heavy minutes for the Pirates last year.

And another player should become eligible this week, joining Payton Caci, who just became eligible.

Crumb expects more production from the bench when the team gets healthy and the bench gets deeper.

“We might be playing with a full deck finally,” Crumb said.

Crumb said that while it’s been a tough preconference for the women, they are treating the beginning of conference play as a whole new season.

“We’ve been trying to power through it and weather the storm. We’re headed in the right direction,” Crumb said.

A day prior, PC saw a nine-point lead slip away to visiting Lower Columbia in a 76-67 loss.

Sharp led all scorers with 30 points, Clark had 13 and Moore chipped in four points and 11 rebounds.

Former Port Angeles prep star Nizhoni Wheeler had 14 points and five rebounds in just 18 minutes off the bench for the visiting Lower Columbia squad, who rebounded from a 33-24 halftime deficit to out-score the Pirates 23-9 in the third quarter and 29-25 in the fourth.

Looking ahead

The Pirates are back in action with their third and fourth consecutive home games of the young season, hosting Shoreline on Jan. 10 and No. 3-ranked Everett on Jan. 13. Peninsula then plays at Olympic (Bremerton) on Jan. 17 and Bellevue on Jan. 20.