KINGSTON — Port Angeles led from the start and earned the Olympic League 2A Division’s No. 1 seed to the Class 2A West Central District Tournament with an impressive 57-38 win over North Kitsap in a seeding tiebreaker between the league co-champions Saturday at Kingston High School.
It was the second win over the Vikings in five days — Port Angeles also beat North Kitsap 54-48 last Tuesday.
The Riders (18-3) get a bye in the first round of the district tournament and will face the winner of Wednesday’s game between River Ridge (10-11) and Foster (13-6) at home Friday at 7 p.m. A win in that game and Port Angeles will return to the state regionals for the third straight season.
“A huge payoff [came with the win] and both teams knew it,” Riders head coach Michael Poindexter said. “NK will be fine, I’ll be rooting for them to advance because both coaches want to meet again in the district semifinals.”
The 3-point shot was important Saturday against North Kitsap (16-5).
Port Angeles connected on 6 of 15 3-point attempts in the first half to take a 27-19 lead into the locker room. Three more treys in the third quarter grew the advantage to 46-28 after three quarters.
“You might call that a difference in the game, but I wouldn’t call it the difference in the game,” Poindexter said.
Two crucial 3-point baskets by freshman Jaida Wood keyed a 15-5 run by the Riders to close the third. Wood finished with eight points, all in the second half.
Millie Long led the Riders with 13 points, including three 3s.
“As relaxed and as confident a shooting night as we’ve seen from her,” Poindexter said.
Madi Cooke added nine points.
“She did a really nice job inside of getting putbacks, getting to the rim with dribble penetration and finishing inside,” Poindexter said.
The Riders also weathered foul trouble to post Devin Edwards, Millie Long and Cheyenne Wheeler.
“I do think our depth really helps,” Poindexter said. “We had a bundle of people in foul trouble and we had to be pretty flexible, the defenses we play require certain personnel. And the kids adjusted well to our shifting defenses.”
Port Angeles knocked down 5 of 6 free throws in the fourth quarter to hold back the Vikings and earn some much needed rest and recovery time.
Port Angeles 34, Olympic 26
PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles earned a share of the Olympic League 2A Division girls basketball title by surviving a rough-and-tumble senior night contest with Olympic 34-26 on Thursday.
This is Port Angeles’ (11-1, 17-3) second Olympic League title in three seasons, and third overall in the past five seasons.
But getting that title share didn’t come easy. Olympic held the Riders 17 points off their season scoring average in a game that saw the two teams combine to shoot 24 of 99 from the field (Port Angeles was 13 of 50, Olympic was 11 of 49).
“I didn’t expect the missed shooting, but I did think it would be a tough, physical game,” Riders coach Michael Poindexter said.
“I think we played more desperate than we should be playing. We are fine, we can score, we just have to finish better. We will work on that technique stuff, it’s our job to drill that with them, but they just need to relax because we were tight. Frantic is a good word. We have no reason to be, we are 17-3, we are a pretty decent team. We just have to relax.”
Poindexter did enjoy how his team defended against Olympic, particularly their senior guard Kiki Mitchell.
“I was really pleased with our defense. we contained and frustrated Kiki Mitchell,” Poindexter said. “That was our goal.
“The defense was great, our rebounding was great in the second half on the offensive end. I though the kids fought hard, the effort was there, we just had no finesse [offensively].”
Port Angeles led 16-13 at halftime, and took a 23-17 lead when Mikkiah Brady connected on a 3-point basket from the top of the key with 5:02 left in the third quarter.
But 10 third quarter turnovers let Olympic back into the contest.
“We tried too hard at times to make the heroic pass, to make the complex move and play instead of simplifying the game,” Poindexter said. “But that’s all right, they are learning.”
The Trojans trailed 25-24 late in the third and had four shots at taking the lead in the final minute of that quarter, plus another shot at snatching away the lead early in the fourth.
Port Angeles survived those shots, and held Olympic to just two points in the final frame.
“They were attacking us hard after our defensive rebounds, so we needed as much strength and size as we could muster on the defensive end to protect the ball from their onslaught after defensive rebounds,” Poindexter said.
Olympic would send two or three players at a rebounding Rider, in an attempt to draw a held-ball call from the officials.
“Madi Cook, Devin Edwards, Jaida Wood, Cheyenne Wheeler and Natalie Steinman when they were in, those three post players and Maddie and Nat when they were in, did a really good job on the boards.”
Cooke paced Port Angeles with 10 points. She came up big with a baseline jumper and a free throw to give the Riders their 3-point lead at halftime and opened the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer and later hit a free throw to put Port Angeles up 29-24 with 6:42 to go.
“She’s got a knack for that,” Poindexter said of Cooke’s ability to spark the team at the end and beginning of quarters.
Port Angeles 34, Olympic 26
OLY 9 4 11 2— 26
PA 9 7 9 9— 34
Olympic (26) — A. Mitchell 7, K. Mitchell 6, A. Williams 6, Matheny 3, Triggs 2, Riley 2.
Port Angeles (34) — Cooke 10, Brady 8, M. Long 6, Edwards 4, Wheeler 4, Wenzl 2, Gray, Steinman, Olsen, G. Long, Wood.
