It was all too familiar.
Ali Crumb and her Pirate women ran away from the competition in the first round of the Northwest Athletic Conference playoffs.
Fueled by two 10-0 runs in the first half, Peninsula held off a last-minute surge to foil Treasure Valley’s comeback attempt, and walk away with a 71-55 win, Sat night, in Port Angeles.
The Lady Pirates face Umpqua in the Elite Eight on March 8, at 10 a.m., in Everett.
Umpqua defeated Grays Harbor 93-75 on Sat.
“The fact that we have the opportunity to compete for another championship is so surreal,” sophomore point guard Imani Smith said.
“We’ve worked hard all year, this is what we’ve been preparing for.”
Peninsula took a 38-13 lead into the break, thoroughly controlling the game with an uptempo offense that silenced the much slower Chukars team.
“The lead definitely gave us some cushion,” Smith said, “but it also fueled us and gave us momentum.”
Cierra Moss said, “to start off like this in a playoff game, it was really cool.”
Treasure Valley regained their composure in the fourth quarter, breaking off a 25-7 run to end the game, but came up short as Peninsula’s lead was ultimately too difficult to overcome.
“Seeing our shots fall and our team defense come together the way that it did last night, showed us how much we’ve grown as a unit,” Smith said.
“It’s really awesome, be- cause the freshmen deserve it too. It’s awesome to see us all come together as a team,” Moss added.
“We’re a different team, and we want our opponents to know that we aren’t who we used to be,” Smith said.
Imani Smith led all scorers with 15 points, to go along with 6 rebounds and 3 assists.
Cierra Moss had 13 points, and Zhara Laster had 8 points, 7 rebounds and 3 steals.
Jenise McKnight had 10 points on 4 for 6 shooting from the field.
Anaya Rodisha put up 10 points, including 2 for 3 shooting from long-range.