By Michael Carman
Peninsula Daily News
UNIVERSITY PLACE — Port Angeles defeated defending West Central District 3 champion White River 53-32 in the district championship game at Curtis High School on Saturday.
Defense delivered the Roughriders their first district title since 2011 and first title game win over White River in three tries under coach Michael Poindexter.
“Outstanding man-to-man defense,” Poindexter said. “Our pregame goal going in was at limiting White River’s dribble penetration. They are excellent at driving, finding the open man and kicking to the wing or rim.”
Poindexter said it was one of the Riders’ better defensive efforts of the year.
“We had at least three kids with four fouls. We were smart, we lived with the foul trouble and played pretty intelligent basketball.”
Jaida Wood led the way with 21 points, including five 3-pointers for Port Angeles (20-3).
Freshman Eve Burke had 13 points, 11 of those coming in the first half.
“She had an awesome inside game,” Poindexter said.
The win over the Hornets, ranked No. 3 in the WIAA RPI, likely seals a return trip to the Class 2A State Tournament in Yakima.
The Roughriders entered the game ranked No. 8 in the RPI and teams ranked one through eight will automatically advance through the state regional round next weekend to play in Yakima.
“We hope so,” Poindexter said. “At this point [the opponent] doesn’t matter all that much. There are some really good teams out there. It would be nice [to be ranked in the top 8 entering regionals].”
Port Angeles 52, Renton 41
TACOMA — The Roughriders moved on to the West Central District III championship game with a 52-41 win over Renton.
The Roughriders scored 24 points in the first quarter and got up 39-25 at halftime.
“Four different players combined for five 3s in the first quarter,” said coach Michael Poindexter. “We went on to hit only two more threes the rest of the game; once we got better at working our possessions more patiently, we scored well inside in the second and the fourth quarters.
“It was a physical game and three of our players finished with four fouls. Our coaching staff was pleased with how well we handled pressure from Renton and how well we dealth with adversity in the fourth quarter,” Poindexter said.
The Riders had good balance with Madison Cooke leading the team with 11 points and 13 rebounds. Eve Burke and Jaida Wood each had nine points, with Burke adding 10 rebounds and Wood five blocks, while Mikkiah Brady scored eight points. Millie Long, in her second game back from surgery on a broken finger had four points and seven rebounds.
Port Angeles 52, Renton 41
Renton 14 11 11 5 — 41
PA 24 15 5 5 — 52
Renton (41) — Herron 11, S. Benning 9, Vasser 7, Lewis 6, Jackson 5, R. Benning 2, Couper 1.
Port Angeles (52) — Cooke 11, Burke 9, Wood 9, Brady 8, Long 4, Brown 4, Larson 4, Noel 3, Olsen.
Port Angeles 71, Franklin Pierce 26
PORT ANGELES — Bolstered by the return of reigning Olympic League MVP Millie Long, Port Angeles dismantled Franklin Pierce 71-26 in a Class 2A West Central District Tournament contest Thursday.
The Roughriders (18-3) sealed a return to the state regional round with the win. If Port Angeles, currently ranked No. 9 in the state’s RPI, can move into the top eight at the end of district play they will qualify for a return trip to the 2A state tournament in Yakima.
It’s the eighth straight season Port Angeles has advanced to the state regional round.
Up next for the Riders: a district semifinal contest against Renton (16-9, 28th in RPI) Friday night at 6 p.m. at Wilson High School in Tacoma.
Already leading Franklin Pierce 12-4 midway through the first period thanks to some stellar offensive rebounding by Madison Cooke, Jaida Wood and Eve Burke, Long checked in for her first action since breaking a finger on her left hand late in a loss to 3A West Seattle on Jan. 12.
Long soon made her impact felt, deflecting a pass to a teammate for a steal and running up court to score on a layup to cap the first quarter. Her bucket was part of a 27-0 run by the Riders stretching over more than 10 minutes of game time that eventually put Port Angeles up 32-4 with 3:42 left in the first half.
“We came in thinking we could score in transition offense, inside against their zone and inside off the boards and we did all that,” Riders coach Michael Poindexter said.
“We played two different zones [defensively] and looked pretty good in both of them in the first half.”
Jaida Wood was outstanding, scoring nine of her 17 points by halftime, while freshman Catie Brown scored seven of her 10 points coming off the bench in the second quarter.
Brown, Burke and fellow freshman Bailee Larson all had solid games for the Riders.
Cooke was steady with 17 points and Mikkiah Brady’s shot came on late to score eight points.
Poindexter was less than pleased, however, with how his team played after halftime.
“What I told them postgame was when we’ve been up on teams, we’ve still played our best basketball. We’ve never taken a lull,” Poindexter said.
“What we are hoping that that was the two-week layoff [since beating Sequim in the Riders’ last game Jan. 31] and it showed up a half late, because we can’t play like that ever anymore this season. And they heard that message in the locker room. Hopefully they take it to heart. We can’t lapse for a whole half.”
Port Angeles 71, Franklin Pierce 26
FP 4 5 13 3— 26
PA 14 24 19 14— 71
Franklin Pierce (26) — Durrough 8, Cook 6, Disney 3, Uti 3, Sims 3, Barbee 2, Roszman 1.
Port Angeles (71) — Wood 17, Cooke 17, Brown 10, Burke 9, Brady 8, Long 4, Gedelman 3, Noel, McGoff, Olsen.
Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News Port Angeles’ Jaida Wood, left, goes for a layup as Franklin Pierce’s Niah Sims and Zionna Barbee, right, and Katy Cook, back, defend during the second quarter of Thursday night’s playoff game at Port Angeles High School.
