By Joseph Laungayan
The Peninsula Pirates woman basketball team opened their season by going into overtime. Although the score was 66-65 in favor of the Wenatchee Knights, It was a close game to the final second.
Alison Crumb, the head coach for the Pirates, had stated in a press release, “This year, we have a lot of new faces.” One of the new faces during this game was freshman Imani Smith. Smith is from Ontario, California and was the MVP on her high school team both junior and senior year.
Smith is responsible for the final basket in the last four seconds of the game that pushed the game into overtime. Smith finished the game with the highest individual score for the Pirates at 17 points. She also had five steals, six rebounds and two assists.
Freshman Zhara Laster is from Mary’s County, Maryland but she finished high school in Sedona, Arizona. Laster received the highest score for rebounds. Her 12-point total included six rebounds. During overtime Laster made an attempt at a winning basket just as time expired leaving the Pirates down by one point.
Other new faces include Cierra Moss, from Neah Bay, Moss scoring eight points in all. Cierra Moss broke Neah Bay’s scoring record and was awarded MVP twice for the North Olympic League.
Cherish Moss, Cierra Moss’ sister, is another new face this year that scored. She scored two points for the Pirates. Cherish Moss was named the North Olympic League’s best offensive player two years in a row.
The Moss sisters both went to state all four years they were in high school.
Coach Crumb commented further in a press release “While we don’t have many returners, the ones we have back were crucial to last year’s success.” The strong crucial returning players include Gabi Fenumiai from Juneau Alaska, who averaged nearly 16 points and 12 rebounds last year. she scored 14 points before fouling out.
Madison Pilster from Blackfoot, Idaho averaged 24 points last year, scored 11 points in this game.
Miranda Schmillen, from Honolulu Hawaii, had three assists, the top score for the Pirates. Schmillen also contributed three steals and seven points to the Pirates total score.
“With the strength of those returners, and the freshmen recruits, we feel like we have one of our best teams yet” “We are looking forward to playing more aggressive, at a quicker pace, which should make for a more exciting style of basketball,” Crumb said.
The Peninsula College men’s team was defeated in its first game of the season against Highline College 81-54. Coach Mitch Freeman said that the loss was due to Highline’s experience. While Highline is an older team Peninsula College has a very young team. The team this year is mostly comprised of freshmen with few returning sophomores. Freeman said, “During the game they played well in the first half… in the second half our lack of depth and the experience of Highline was what caused such a point differential.”
In reference to the week immediately following their first game Freeman said, “All this week we’ve been getting better, working to learn from our game at Highline. We have a terrific group of kids that work very hard.”
Freeman was excited for PC’s upcoming home stand which will be held Dec. 6 and 7, the first Pirate classic here at PC.
