The Peninsula men will face a familiar opponent in their bracket draw for the Northwest Athletic Conference playoffs, though both the men and the women got a tough draw in their playoff brackets, possibly having to play the No. 1 team in the NWAC in their second games.
Playoff brackets were announced by the NWAC on Sunday. The games will be played at Everett Community College. Both the men and women were placed in the East bracket.
The men, a No. 2 seed out of the North Division, will play Portland Community College, the No. 3 seed out of the South Division, in the “Egg McMuffin” game at at 8 a.m. Thursday.
Peninsula beat Portland early in the season, 78-65 on Nov. 26.
Peninsula finished the season with a 9-5 record in the North (18-8 overall). Portland was 9-7 in the South and 12-14 overall.
While Portland might have been a good draw for the men, if they win, they will likely have to play the No. 1 team in the NWAC, North Idaho (25-4), in the second round. The men were ranked No. 5 in the last NWAC coaches’ poll.
Head coach Mitch Freeman said he thinks it’s helpful that Peninsula has played Portland before.
“We have a good feeling for how they want to play, obviously, the game was a long time ago.” he said. He said Portland is a good rebounding team and very athletic.
Freeman said with the 8 a.m. start time, he will be holding practices earlier than normal to get his players’ bodies used to playing early in the day. He also said he isn’t bothered by being put in the same bracket with No. 1 North Idaho. His team can’t get caught looking past Portland.
“That’s not something we can control,” he said.
Peninsula does go into the postseason having lost its final regular-season game and giving up 96 points to Whatcom. Freeman said he didn’t feel his team had a lot of energy defensively in that game, but that Whatcom “had a lot to play for” trying to earn a playoff spot.
“We’re not drowning our sorrows [in that game],” Freeman said. “We’re moving forward.”
“That’s something we can’t control,” he said.
Peninsula women
The Peninsula women will open up postseason play at 8 a.m. Saturday in the Northwest Athletic Conference against Tacoma.
Tacoma (9-5, 20-7) is a No. 3 seed in the West Division while Peninsula (10-4, 18-9) is the No. 2 seed out of the North Division.
Coach Allison Crumb said she doesn’t know a lot about Tacoma yet and that coaches will begin looking at film of them. Not only have the Pirates not played them, they didn’t see Tacoma at any early season tournaments. She said the team already knows that their best player is guard/forward Bobbi Westendorf, who averages 19.9 points a game.
Crumb also said the team doesn’t know if it will have starter Anaya Rodisha back for Saturday’s game. Rodisha has a fracture in her ankle sustained a couple of weeks ago.
“I don’t know if we’re going to have her. It could be a game-time decision,” Crumb said.
The good news is the Pirates do have Yamelei Rodriguez, a valuable bench player, back. She missed a couple of games recently with muscle strains in her neck and chest.
“We’re a bit banged up. It is what it is,” Crumb said.
If the women beat Tacoma, their second-round game will likely be against Umpqua, like North Idaho, ranked No. 1 in the NWAC. Umpqua is 16-0 in its South Division and 27-2 overall.
Crumb said it’s a tough draw, but that Peninsula can’t worry about Umpqua.
“We’re just trying to get through Tacoma,” Crumb said. “You have to run into them [Umpqua] eventually,” she said.
