EDMONDS — The Peninsula College basketball men held off a comeback attempt by Edmonds to win their game 88-83 over the Tritons, while the women roared from behind with a 28-point fourth quarter to also win their game 73-63.
The victories keep both teams in third place in the North Division with identical 6-3 league records.
The men avenged a 96-88 overtime loss to Edmonds earlier this season.
More importantly, the Pirates showed they can play tough down the stretch, said coach Donald Rollman. This has been the men’s Achilles heel this season.
A key to the game was free-throw shooting as the Pirates’ Jaylin Reed, Davien Harris-Williams and Everett Torres-Kahapea combined to shoot 22 for 25 (88 percent) from the free-throw line. The Pirates as a team shot 27 for 31 (87.1 percent).
The game was close throughout, but the Pirates pulled away to open up a lead midway through the second half. After a pair of Davien Williams-Harris free throws, Peninsula held a 82-74 lead with 2:55 left in the game.
However, the Tritons roared back with two quick buckets and a 3-pointer to make it 82-81 with 1:37 left in the game.
Harris-Williams scored six points in the final 1:19 of the game, four of them coming from the charity stripe, to fend off Edmonds.
“Edmonds is so tough and so physical. That’s was flat out the toughest we have been all year,” Rollman said. “We needed a win like that. We finished so much better than we have. That’s where we have struggled.”
Harris-Williams shot 10 for 11 from the free-throw line and finished with 23 points.
The Pirates didn’t shoot that well from outside — 5 for 22 from beyond the 3-point arc — but dominated the boards, outrebounding the Tritons 44 to 26.
Malik Moore was a huge part of that story, pulling down 15 rebounds, five of them offensive, to go with 15 points. Torres-Kahapea added 16 points for the Pirates.
Beyond the box score, Rollman said the Pirates’ Gabe Long (Port Angeles High School) was a huge contributor. The Pirates had three starters in foul trouble and Long had to play for 10 full minutes, guarding the Tritons’ best player, Curtis Walker.
“That was an incredible 10 minutes,” Rollman said. Long contributed a 3-point basket, two blocks and four rebounds in 10 minutes.
The win keeps Peninsula in playoff position in a very tough North Division that has five teams with a winning record. The Pirates (6-3, 16-5) have their work cut out for them at 7 p.m. Wednesday, playing the No. 1-ranked team in the NWAC, Skagit Valley (8-1, 23-1). In their first match-up this season against the Cardinals, the Pirates gave them a game, losing by just 12 points — 86-74. The Pirates were down by just four points with 2:30 left to play in that game.
Peninsula 88, Edmonds 83
PC 40 48 — 88
Edm. 39 44 — 83
Peninsula (88) — Harris-Williams 23, Torres-Kahapea 16, Moore 15, Reed 8, Gurske 7, Despain 7, Hunter-Holiday 6, Long 3, Artis 3.
Edmonds (83) — Walker 29, Gebreziabher 13, Parmar 12, Holland 10, Ibraham 7, Hammer 6, Weisinger 2, Hedego 2, Anglin 2.
Women’s Game
The Peninsula women got behind Edmonds by as much as 13 points in the second half, but the Pirates roared back with a 38-15 finish over the final 15 minutes of the contest to win by 10 points.
“They never make it easy on me,” said head coach Alison Crumb.
Peninsula outscored the Tritons 28-13 in the fourth quarter after finishing the third quarter on a 10-2 run.
“I just told the girls to relax. They’ve been playing really tense lately,” Crumb said. “I just told them to relax and have fun.
“I just knew we were going to win … we didn’t know how yet,” Crumb said.
Casandra White led the Pirates with 19 points on three 3-pointers. Logan Luke scored 13 and Leilani Padilla 12. Kayla Johnson was all sixes with six points, six rebounds and six assists. She added four steals.
Sunshine Vicente had six points and six assists, while Amari Brown led the team with seven rebounds.
Free-throw shooting was big in the women’s game, too, as Peninsula shot 11 for 12 on its free throws in the final minute of the game as the Tritons fouled to try and get back in the game. The Pirates actually didn’t show well from the free-throw line until that last minute as they had only shot 5 for 14 up until that point from the charity stripe.
The Peninsula women (6-3, 13-7) next host Skagit Valley (3-6, 9-12) at 5 p.m. Wednesday. Peninsula is in the middle of the playoff hunt and still in the mix for the North title. The Pirates are one game behind Everett for second place and two games behind Whatcom.
Peninsula 73, Edmonds 63
PC 14 11 20 28 — 73
Edm. 14 21 15 13 — 63
Peninsula (73) — White 19, Luke 13, Padilla 12, Vicente 6, Johnson 6, McCaulley 5, Bowen 4, Brown 4, Fitzgerald 2, Sargent 2.
Edmonds (63) — Balino 25, Pluid 14, Agbayani 13, Kahalehoe 5, Balagso 3, Cates 3.
