SILVERDALE — Mariah Frazier grabbed a defensive rebound with both teams tied 45-all in the final seconds, threw the ball down the court to Kiah Jones, who took it to the hoop for the winning layup as the Port Angeles girls basketball team earned the third seed to the district tournament Saturday.
The Roughriders shaded Kingston 47-45 on Kiah Jones’ shot.
Frazier seemed to be all over the place in the final seconds as she hit a 6-foot jumper at the shot-clock buzzer to tie the game 45-45 with 25 seconds left.
Then Kingston missed a shot, Frazier grabbed the rebound and, well, you know the rest.
The Olympic League runner-up Port Angeles (15-6) beat league champion Kingston (16-6) for the first time this year.
But two of the three games were close with the Buccaneers winning by one at Port Angeles and by 17 in Kingston before the Riders got the upper hand Saturday.
“Of the 12 quarters we have played, each team has won half of the quarters,” Port Angeles coach Michael Poindexter said.
“Our teams are very evenly matched.”
This was not a pretty game.
Neither team had bounced back well from its subdistrict loss Thursday in the first round.
“I think both teams really, really struggled early on,” Poindexter said. “It was an extremely physical game.”
(See PDN Monday editions for complete story).