TACOMA — The Port Angeles girls basketball was beaten in the regular season by double digits twice by Olympic League champion Bainbridge.
With their ticket already punched to the state tournament, the Roughriders had nothing to lose and a lot of pride to gain by beating the Spartans the third time around in the District 3 tournament championship game, and so they did, smothering Bainbridge on defense in a 44-36 win.
It was the 14th game this year the Riders allowed 36 points or less. After a 1-3 start to the season, the Riders improved to 17-6 on the season, including three straight postseason wins in the District 3 tourney.
“It was a great district tournament week for us with two comeback wins over North Mason and Eatonville, followed by the district championship victory over a team that had defeated us twice during the regular season,” said coach Michael Poindexter.
Port Angeles goes into state as a No. 10 seed and will play No. 15 Cedarcrest at 10 a.m. Saturday at the University of Puget Sound campus is Tacoma. Ironically, even though Port Angeles beat Bainbridge, the Spartans go to state as a No. 8 seed.
The one thing all three wins had in common is that the Riders were huge in the fourth quarter. In a 46-41 win over North Mason, Port Angeles finished the game on a 12-2 run. In a 48-44 win over Eatonville in the semifinals, the Riders outscored Eatonville 27-11 in the fourth.
Against Bainbridge, Port Angeles was clinging to a 31-30 lead early in the fourth quarter and held off the Spartans 13-6 down the stretch.
“We played man-[to]-man defense for most of the game, and that was successful in frustrating the Spartans. Once they closed the gap to 31-30 with a bit over six minutes left, we shifted to a 1-3-1 zone on the suggestion of assistant coach Jennifer Rogers. That defense changed the Spartans’ offensive rhythm and also caused them to use more of the shot clock on each possession,” Poindexter said.
Teanna Clark had another huge postseason game, drilling three 3-pointers in the second half and making a spectacular shot on an off-balance drive to the basket late in the game. She finished with 15 points. Lindsay Smith finished with 18 points, going head-to-head with Olympic League MVP Bella Ramirez, who scored 19. Smith also shot 3-of-4 on her free throws in the final minute to help ice the game, while adding 14 rebounds and four blocked shots. Lexie Smith had six points and eight rebounds.
“Teanna Clark had a tough assignment of guarding Ramirez for most of the game. While Bella scored a game-high 19 points, she did so on 25 shots, shooting just 28 percent from the field,” Poindexter said.
“The highlight for us off the bench was the play of Mikkhia Stevens, who played outstanding defense, picked up three assists, and did not commit any turnovers,” he said.
Bainbridge had beaten Port Angeles 48-38 and 52-28 during the regular season but the Riders are a different team now, having won nine straight and 13 out of 14.
Port Angeles 44, Bainbridge 36
PA 11 7 13 13 — 44
BI 7 10 9 10 — 36
Port Angeles (44) — Lindsay Smith 18, Clark 15, Lexie Smith 6, Manson 4, Politika 1.
