Last week, late in a girls basketball game against the league-champion Sequim Wolves, Port Angeles’ Anna Petty went down in a scary pileup under the Roughriders’ basket. Petty, the leading scorer and ballhandler for the Riders, injured her knee severely enough that she had to be carried off the court.
Two days later, the Riders played their final home game of the year, an important game against 3A Bainbridge that beat Port Angeles earlier in the year. Port Angeles didn’t need the win to make the postseason, but a victory was needed to help the Roughriders’ Ratings Percentage Index and playoff seeding.
With senior Petty on the bench, the shorthanded Riders played well, but found themselves down by a point early in the fourth quarter. In the final regular-season home appearance of her career, Petty made a dramatic appearance into the game, giving the Riders a huge emotional boost.
Petty scored her first basket within seconds and finished with six points and two assists in only six minutes. She also hit a pair of free throws and a layup that gave Port Angeles a nine-point lead with under two minutes to play. Bainbridge nearly tied the game late, but Paige Mason ended the comeback attempt with a clutch steal for a 39-35 win.
The victory gave the Riders momentum heading into the District 2/3 tournament and a No. 6 seed.
