PORT ANGELES — Davien Harris-Williams’ step-back 15-foot jumper with 1.3 seconds to play boosted the Peninsula College men’s basketball team to an 88-86 win over Whatcom on Wednesday night.
“It was a fun one that’s for sure,” Pirates head coach Donald Rollman said.
The Orcas’ Tevin Bayne previously tied the contest up by sinking an NBA-range 3-pointer from behind the top of the key with 9.5 seconds left. Harris-Williams then took the inbounds pass, dribbled up the left side of the court, cleared space against Whatcom defender Marcus Montag and stepped back to hit the game-winning basket.
Montag’s desperation heave from behind the 3-point line was well short and the Pirates celebrated the win, Peninsula’s third straight NWAC North victory, together at center court.
“[Bayne] had 38 points. He was on fire all night and he knocks down a 3 in transition to tie it up,” Rollman said.
Peninsula had a timeout to burn to set up a last-second shot attempt, but Rollman let his guys play it out.
“That set up an interesting last nine seconds,” Rollman said. “I let it go kind of because they looked like [Whatcom] weren’t ready in transition defense and they were looking at their coach.
“And we’ve talked about it before — Davien is a gamer.
He took off and was at halfcourt before they picked him up. He had been shooting well all night, he scored 32, so when it was time to make a play he put the ball in his hands and was aggressive.”
The shot capped a night in which the Pirates held the lead for much of the contest — only falling behind during an 11-0 Whatcom run that began with Peninsula up 77-70 with 6:20 to play.
“We played pretty well, we were prepared, we had the lead most of the game,” Rollman said.
“They are a physical team and they kind of imposed their will. They were getting to the basket pretty much at will for a five or six minute stretch there late and they took the lead by four at one point.”
Rollman said the team responded well after a timeout with 2:40 to play.
“The toughness we showed in fighting against some adversity,” Rollman said. “[The refs] didn’t call much, but we stuck to our guns and stuck to what made us successful.
Peninsula hit 15 of 31 3-point shots. Harris-Williams was 4 of 10, Keith Seldon 3 of 5, Samuel Kahapea 4 of 7 and James Buckley hit 3 of 4 off the bench.
Whatcom hit on nine 3s with Bayne shooting 6 of 11 beyond the arc.
“We worked on flow in practice, running actions consistently and shooting game-speed shots,” Rollman said.
“We hit some tough shots last night, but hit a lot of rhythm shots.”
The Pirates also outrebounded the Orcas, who lead the NWAC in rebounding, and limited top individual rebounder Dominic Oliveri to 8 rebounds, only one coming after halftime.
Peninsula (4-1, 7-12) will take its three-game winning streak on the road to face league-leading Everett (5-0, 13-7) and the NWAC’s second-leading scorer Markeith Brown Jr.
“I’ve been racking my brain [gameplanning for Everett],” Rollman said. “It’s a bad omen to think past a game, we were prepared for Whatcom, but Tuesday I was thinking, ‘What are we going to do against this Brown kid?’”
“We will need our full effort defensively. And if we keep playing like this offensively I like our chances.”
Peninsula 88, Whatcom 86
Whatcom 42 44 — 86
PC 47 41 — 88
Whatcom (86) — Bayne 38, Lane 18, Oliveri 12, Balvanz 10, Reason 6, Montag 2.
Peninsula (88) — Harris-Williams 32, Kahapea 16, Seldon 12, Buckley 11, Cleveland 4, Moore 4, Kelly 4, Angevine 3, Glover 2, Thomas
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Sports reporter/columnist Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
