PORT ANGELES — The Peninsula College men’s basketball team can expect to see some familiar opponents at the Northwest Athletic Conference Tournament, whereas the women will face teams they have not seen.
The women, the North Region champions, will face a No. 4 seed out of the east, North Idaho (9-7 East, 14-10 overall), on Saturday.
The men, a No. 4 seed out of the North, will play South champion Lane on Thursday.
The Peninsula women (13-1 in the North, 22-3 overall) got bad news, good news in their draw.
“We got a tough No. 4 seed for sure. [The East] is a pretty deep region,” said coach Alison Crumb. If the Pirates win, they will face either No. 3 Portland (10-6 South, 17-11 overall) or No. 2 Centralia (8-4 West, 14-9 overall), two other teams Peninsula hasn’t faced all year.
Crumb said it’s harder to prepare for teams that Peninsula doesn’t know, but at the same time, “You tend not to overthink it as much when you don’t know your opponents.”
The really good news for the Pirates is No. 1 overall seed Lane, with its perfect 26-0 record, is way over on the side of the bracket. If Peninsula has to face Lane, it won’t be until the NWAC championship game.
“If you trying to win a championship, and we are, that’s a good thing,” Crumb said.
The Pirates won’t have to face another tough team out of the brutal South Region, Clackamas (23-2 overall), until the NWAC’s final four.
The women also have some health concerns, as one of their leading players, former Port Angeles Roughrider Millie Long, sprained her ankle badly in a regular-season ending game last week.
Though Long wasn’t on crutches after the game, Crumb said the ankle is still really hurting her and Long is not able to practice. The good news for the Pirates and Long is that the women don’t play until Saturday evening, so she has 10 days to rest the ankle.
“It’s day by day,” Crumb said. “If she hasn’t practiced all week, but she wakes up Saturday and is ready to go, we’re going to play her.”
The women have a unique team this year, with four Olympic Peninsula players — Long, Sequim’s Hope Glasser, Port Angeles’ Maddie Cooke and Port Townsend’s Gina Brown — all getting significant playing time.
Men’s seed
The Peninsula men (8-6 North Region, 16-10 overall) had to win their final game over Shoreline last week to qualify for the postseason. Their reward is a 23-3 Lane squad.
The men played Lane early in December in a pre-conference tournament, losing 54-50. The Pirates actually were down just one point with 37 seconds to play.
“We’re pretty similar teams in terms of toughness,” said coach Donald Rollman. “They were playing strictly zone then. Now they play more man-to-man and zone.”
Rollman said the big difference in that game was 19 turnovers by the Pirates.
That 50 points was Peninsula’s lowest offensive output all year. Since then, the Pirates have evolved into a high-scoring team, scoring 80 or more points in 10 games and over 100 points twice.
“We’re a different team scoring and shooting,” Rollman said. “We’re very different. They’re pretty similar to where they were.”
Rollman said the Pirates weren’t that worried about their draw.
“I don’t think it really matters. We’re just worried about ourselves. We’ve dealt with adversity. We’ve seen everything you can see this season. We’ll be ready for whoever,” he said.
Interestingly, if the Pirates win, they would face a familiar foe in the second round, either Yakima Valley or Green River. The Pirates beat No. 2-seed Green River (10-4 West, 19-10 overall) 59-55 way back in November and lost to No. 3-seed Yakima Valley (9-7, 17-9) 77-66 on Dec. 18.
The men’s game will be played at 6 p.m. Thursday at Everett Community College. If they win, they would play again at 5 p.m. Friday in the Elite Eight.
The women begin play at 6 p.m. Saturday. If they win, their second-round game would be at 5 p.m. Sunday.
The Peninsula games can be watched online at www.nwacsportsnetwork.com. The cost is $10 for the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight games, $12 for the Final Four games and $35 to have access to all 30 men’s and women’s games.
