PORT ANGELES — Shoreline Community College made the Peninsula men’s basketball team lace up its track shoes Saturday night.
And even with sophomore big man DeShaun Freeman out nursing a knee injury, the Pirates had more than enough firepower to keep up.
J.T. Terrell exploded for 34 points to lead a group of five Pirates scorers in double figures, and Peninsula raced past Shoreline for a 116-106 win.
Forward Corey Clement added 24 points and 12 rebounds, guard Tyler Funk had 21 points and six assists and Sam Waller 11 points and 12 assists as the Pirates kept pace in NWAACC North Division play.
“For me as a coach I don’t like giving up 100 points, but I just kind of took my own ego out of the equation on this one,” Pirates coach Lance Von Vogt said.
“I said, ‘All right guys, this game is yours.’”
Thanks to a Wednesday bye, Peninsula (5-1 in North, 15-2 overall) had all week to prepare for the unique style Shoreline (3-3, 9-8) brought to town.
With the help of former Loyola Marymount star Bo Kimble, a Shoreline assistant, the Dolphins installed an up-tempo system during the offseason rooted in the principles taught to Kimble by coach Paul Westhead in the late 1980s.
The goal is to push the pace at all times with players encouraged to hoist up 100-plus shots a game while also crashing the boards and pressing relentlessly.
While neither team reached the century mark in terms of shot attempts Saturday night, the two did combine for 171 total.
Ten- and five-second possessions were the norm in a game that featured zero shot-clock violations.
In fact, it wasn’t until the Pirates began to intentionally stall their offense with four minutes to go that any possession lasted longer than 25 seconds.
“What really hurt us tonight is we went five days with no practice because of the snow,” Shoreline coach Greg Turcott said.
“That just killed us because we’re really a rhythm-conditioning team and that got us out of rhythm.”
With a roster loaded with ball-handlers and no one taller than 6-foot-4, the Pirates broke the Dolphin press consistently while also holding their own on the boards.
The Pirates turned the ball over just 12 times on the game while dishing out 29 assists and finishing even on the rebounding margin at 50 apiece.
Waller had just two turnovers while handling the ball most of the night, and forward Dudley Ewell had nine points, seven rebounds, five assists and zero turnovers in the middle of the Pirate press break.
Guard Chris Buchanan added 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting in a rare start.
Thrown together, that was enough to survive a game of blitzkrieg basketball from the Dolphins, who got a 24-point night from forward Will Acromite and 20-point, 15-assist performance out of guard Avery Scharer.
“We spent a couple of days in practice debating what they were going to do,” Von Vogt said.
“I told my guys, ‘I’m going to take the reins off. You guys are smart enough players. You guys know how to play basketball. Make good decisions, take good shots that we want, not the shots they want us to take, and let the chips fall where they may.
“We’re guard-laden this year. If they are going to play that style, I thought our personnel matched up well with that style.”
Peninsula sank 55.1 percent of its field-goal attempts (43 of 78) on the game, compared to 43 percent shooting for Shoreline (40 of 93).
Much of that had to do with where those shots were coming from.
While the Dolphins were content to shoot beyond the 3-point line — where they were 13 of 36 — the Pirates attacked the basket again and again.
Terrell got to the paint with regularity on isolation plays and press breaks and was also 3 of 4 from 3-point range while adding a highlight reel alley-oop dunk.
Several Peninsula buckets came on fastbreak leak-outs as the Pirates often sent a player running to the other end on Dolphin shot attempts in order to exploit Shoreline’s rigid commitment to pressing.
Clement was the recipient of many of those easy baskets, scoring three alone during a critical 12-0 run that put the Pirates ahead 38-26 with 6:02 left in the first half.
“To be honest, they had a faster pace than I was expecting, [Sharer] handled our pressure well,” Funk said.
“It was a long game, and I’m glad we had a lot of people to step in and fill roles, especially with DeShawn out. I thought we played great.
“We had to make sure we were smart. We had to look up the floor, but we couldn’t be too fast.
“The main thing was once they scored we had to get the ball out quickly.”
Peninsula went into the break up 56-42, and Shoreline opened the second half with a 13-4 run fueled by three 3-pointers to narrow the lead to 60-55.
The teams went back and forth after that until the Pirates went on an 8-0 run that included a fastbreak basket from Daniel Sims and putback from Clement for a 79-64 edge.
Peninsula built a lead as large as 18 points at 99-81 following Terrell’s fastbreak alley-oop dunk of a Waller lob.
Only after the Pirates began to stall on offense did the Dolphins rally back to within single digits at 106-100 with 1:50 left.
Funk then scored a 3-point play off a drive to the basket and Clement came up with a steal and fastbreak layup after that to put the game away.
“[Von Vogt] has got good players and he has got them playing the right way,” Turcott said.
“At the end of the year they are going to be the team to beat.”
Peninsula 116, Shoreline 106
Shoreline 42 64 — 106
Peninsula 56 60 — 116
Individual scoring
Shoreline (106)
Dixon 13, Lupfer 5, Bodman 16, Donaldson 15, Scharer 20, Acromite 26, George 2, Thompson Jr., 3, Fiawoo 6.
Peninsula (116)
Ewell 9, Sims 5, Funk 21, Buchanan 10, Terrell 34, Waller 11, Clement 24, Rawls 2.