POULSBO — Brody Pierce poured in a career-high 33 points and Port Angeles pressed to its advantage early and late in a 68-51 road win over North Kitsap on Tuesday.
“We jumped out on them a little bit. We had been working on a press all season, but I was hesitant to put it in until we were ready to use it,” coach Kevin Ruble said. “It took NK by surprise and they had some troubles adjusting. We alternated playing man and zone from there on and executed and played well together.
“Brody got into a real good groove offensively in the first half and he did a great job of finding open players when they started to double team him,” Ruble said.
The Vikings trimmed the Riders’ lead to five points in the final frame as North Kitsap guard Justin Weigard heated up and scored 30 points.
Port Angeles went inside to post Brock Hope and the 6-foot-8 center showed off a soft touch off the glass with late buckets on his way to 20 points, his best scoring game of the year.
“NK is not the biggest team, so down the stretch, we made a concerted effort to get the ball to Brock and the kids played off him really well,” Ruble said.
Hunter Flores added seven for the Riders (9-3, 11-6) who visit Olympic Peninsula rival Sequim at 7 p.m. Friday. The Roughriders beat Sequim 58-55 in Port Angeles earlier this season in a thriller that came down to the wire.
Sequim 72, Olympic 54
BREMERTON — Solomon Sheppard poured in 22 points and senior Sebastian Buhrer came through with 14 points as the Wolves picked up a road win over the Trojans. Zeke Schmadeke scored 10, Mason Rapelje nine and Andy Reynolds eight.
Sequim (7-4, 7-9) hosts rival Port Angeles on Friday as the two teams jockey for playoff position down the stretch of the regular season.
Sequim 72, Olympic 54
Sequim 17 16 22 19 — 72
Olympic 9 17 19 9 — 54
Sequim (72) — Sheppard 22, Buhrer 14, Schmadeke 10, Rapelje 9, Reynolds 8, Klimp 5, Bacchus 3.
