By Eric Trent
Back in the saddle again.
The Peninsula women’s basketball team is back in the championship game – for the second year in a row – after decimating the Lower Columbia Red Devils 66-44 in the Northwest Athletic Conference semi-finals, on Sat. March 12.
Peninsula faces the the Lane Titans on Sunday, March 13, at 5:30 p.m. in Everett.
Lane defeated Wenatchee 63-61 in the semi-finals on Sat. March 12.
The Pirates reeled off a 17-6 run to start the second half, and carried the momentum to the final buzzer.
Peninsula dominated the paint, outscoring Lower Columbia 34-16 from inside, and out-rebounded them 51-39.
“This is where we wanted to be,” Peninsula Head Coach Ali Crumb said. “Win or lose tomorrow, we wanted to have a shot at it, to be on that stage again and put everything that we have out there.”
Sophomore Guard Imani Smith added, “It feels so good, to be able to go out and compete again, tomorrow, for a championship.”
“It’s amazing,” Smith added. “I don’t even know how to describe it. We’ve been through so much this year. We’ve had a target on our back, we knew it wasn’t going to be easy.”
“It’s surreal,” Crumb said. “It’s so hard to get here. When that actually happens, it’s just hard to actually process.
“It’s difficult to be one of the last teams standing, at the very end of this.”
The first-half was a defensive battle as both teams barely broke the double-digit marks in points for the first-two quarters.
“We didn’t hit shots from the outside,” Crumb said. “We started to play on our heels.”
“We were too sluggish offensively,” she said. “It was too slow, and it was neutralizing our athleticism.”
The Pirates struggled offensively the first-two quarters, shooting only 30.3 percent from the field, with an even worse, 0-10 from long-range.
“We needed to go out there and cause havoc, defensively,” Crumb said. “So we could get out in the open court and highlight our athleticism.”
Peninsula also had trouble holding onto the ball in the first-half, turning it over 12 times.
“We were shooting poorly and having turnovers,” Crumb said. “So, our possessions were not quality possessions.”
The Pirates led 13-10 after one, then scored the final 6 points of the second quarter off an inbounds alley-oop bucket by Zhara Laster, followed with back-to-back layups by Anaya Rodisha, giving Peninsula a 25-21 lead at the break.
“That was momentum,” Smith said. “We fed off that.”
Peninsula rode that momentum into the second-half, breaking off a 17-6 run, followed by another 10-4 run, to increase their lead to 20 with 8:08 left in the game.
“We just stepped up with confidence,” Smith said. “We talked about it at half time.”
“We came out firing,” she said. “We weren’t going to lose this game, we weren’t going to let it happen.”
The Pirates ramped up the defensive pressure, holding Lower Columbia to 29 percent shooting from the field in the second-half.
Lower Columbia would cut the lead to 16 with 5:02 remaining, but would get no closer as Peninsula’s reserves played the final three minutes of action.
Four Pirates scored in double-digits as the Pirates committed only one turnover the entire second half.
“I have to thank my team,” Crumb said. “They go out and win games, and I just try not to screw it up.”
“Right now they’re playing so resilient,” Crumb said. “They just want this, they’re ready. I’m blessed to just have them as my team.”
Imani Smith led the Pirates in scoring with 18 points, to go along with 5 rebounds, 4 steals and 4 assists.
Zhara Laster posted a double-double, with 10 points, 13 rebounds, along with 5 steals and 5 assists.
Cierra Moss had 13 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists.
