WOMEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL: Pirates prepare for Final Four matchup against defending champs
Published 1:30 am Friday, March 13, 2026
PORT ANGELES — The first challenge for the Peninsula College women will be to get to Pasco through a late winter freezing storm.
The second challenge will be to face two of the toughest teams the NWAC has to offer.
The Pirates (24-4) are back in the NWAC Final Four for the third time in the four years. They will be trying to get back to the NWAC championship game for the first time since 2022.
Peninsula will face Walla Walla at 7 p.m. tonight at Columbia Basin College. Walla Walla is the defending NWAC champion and it might not be the toughest team left in the tournament.
Peninsula knows Walla Walla (27-4). The Pirates faced the Warriors way back on Nov. 15, 2025 in the second game of the season in a Columbia Basin tournament and lost 59-44. The Pirates were missing some of their regular players in that game such as Makena Patrick and Aspen Fraser.
Head coach Alison Rose said that earlier game doesn’t mean a lot at this point of the season, 26 games later.
“It doesn’t really matter. They know how they are are,” Rose said. “We’re both different teams.”
The Pirates had a tough road to the Final Four. They were absolutely pushed to the limit in their opener by Treasure Valley. The Chukars had a 14-point lead late in the first half, then after Peninsula rallied, Treasure Valley came back on the Pirates late in the game.
The game was tied five times in the fourth quarter as both teams just kept hitting clutch shots. The Pirates prevailed in the end 70-66 thanks to a Patrick layup with 23 seconds left.
Rose said that having to battle and make clutch baskets in order to win made the Pirates better.
“We needed a wake up call,” Rose said. “That was the best thing for us.”
In the quarterfinals, the Pirates had a less stressful game, maintaining a double-digit lead throughout most of the second half in a 71-57 win over Umpqua.
The Pirates can’t look past Walla Walla, of course, but if they get to the championship game, they will face either Clackamas (32-0) or Lower Columbia (25-4), which beat the Pirates in the championship game in 2022 on a last-second 3-pointer in overtime.
For once, Lane College is not among the Final Four. Lane has dominated the South Region for years, but this year, Clackamas, which has been a good team, but usually second or third in the South, has become the team to beat.
If the Pirates make it to the title game, it will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday. All games will be streamed on the NWAC Network and there is a fee to watch.
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Sports editor Pierre LaBossiere can be contacted at sports@peninsuladaily news.com.
